Quotes from Carlo Rovelli

To trust immediate intuitions rather than collective examination that is rational, careful and intelligent is not wisdom: it is the presumption of an old man who refuses to believe that the great world outside his village is any different from the one which he has always known.

Scientific thinking explores and redraws the world, gradually offering us better and better images of it, teaching us to think in ever more effective ways. Science is a continual exploration of ways of thinking. Its

Si noti il meraviglioso «Mi sembra...» iniziale, che ricorda l'«Io penso...» con cui Darwin introduce nei suoi taccuini la grande idea che le specie evolvono, o l'«esitazione» di cui parla Faraday quando nel suo libro introduce la rivoluzionaria idea di campo elettrico. Il genio esita.

As our knowledge has grown, we have learned that our being is only a part of the universe, and a small part at that. This

Fare scienza è una successione di delusioni, cose che non funzionano, idee sbagliate, esperimenti che non riescono, conti che non tornano. di tanto in tanto punteggiata da momenti di gioia.

More than a hundred years have passed since we learned that the "present of the universe" does not exist.

Light on a surface is but a hailstorm.

An overly pragmatic attitude is not productive on the long run.