Quotes from Arthur Eddington

Time is the supreme Law of nature.

The mathematics is not there till we put it there.

In any attempt to bridge the domains of experience belonging to the spiritual and physical sides of nature, time occupies the key position.

There was a time when we wanted to be told what an electron is. The question was never answered. No familiar conceptions can be woven around the electron; it belongs to the waiting list.

Whatever else there may be in our nature, responsibility toward truth is one of its attributes.

The pursuit of truth in science transcends national boundaries. It takes us beyond hatred and anger and fear. It is the best of us.

In Einstein's theory of relativity the observer is a man who sets out in quest of truth armed with a measuring-rod. In quantum theory he sets out with a sieve.

For the truth of the conclusions of physical science, observation is the supreme Court of Appeal.

It is impossible to trap modern physics into predicting anything with perfect determinism because it deals with probabilities from the outset.

Probably the simplest hypothesis... is that there may be a slow process of annihilation of matter.

If an army of monkeys were strumming on typewriters, they might write all the books in the British Museum.

Falling in love is one of the activities forbidden that tiresome person, the consistently reasonable man.

Every body continues in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, except insofar as it doesn't.

Something unknown is doing we don't know what.

We have found a strange footprint on the shores of the unknown.

It is sound judgment to hope that in the not too distant future we shall be competent to understand so simple a thing as a star.

Who will observe the observers?

We often think that when we have completed our study of one we know all about two, because 'two' is 'one and one.' We forget that we still have to make a study of 'and.'

It is even possible that laws which have not their origin in the mind may be irrational, and we can never succeed in formulating them.

Do not put too much confidence in experimental results until they have been confirmed by theory.

It is also a good rule not to put overmuch confidence in the observational results that are put forward until they are confirmed by theory.

The idea of a universal mind or Logos would be, I think, a fairly plausible inference from the present state of scientific theory.