Quotes About Science

It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure.

I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking

If there is any religion that could respond to the needs of modern science, it would be Buddhism.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.

One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike -- and yet it is the most precious thing we have.

No, this trick won't work... How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

It is harder to crack prejudice than an atom.

No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.

One of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought.

Since the mathematicians have invaded the theory of relativity I do not understand it myself any more.

Concerning matter, we have been all wrong. What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. There is no matter.

It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.

In the view of such harmony in the cosmos which I, with my limited human mind, am able to recognize, there are yet people who says there is no God. But what makes me really angry is that they quote me for support of such views. (The Expanded Quotable Einstein, Princeton University, page 214)

Every one who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe-a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.

I maintain that the cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and noblest motive for scientific research.

The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and science. He who knows it not and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle.

When the number of factors coming into play in a phenomenological complex is too large scientific method in most cases fails. One need only think of the weather, in which case the prediction even for a few days ahead is impossible.

The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.

Do you really believe that the moon isn't there when nobody looks?

A theory is something nobody believes, except the person who made it. An experiment is something everybody believes, except the person who made it.

You are right in speaking of the moral foundations of science, but you cannot turn around and speak of the scientific foundations of morality.

Science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be, and outside of its domain value, elly judgments of all kinds remain necessary.

I assert that the cosmic religious experience is the strongest and the noblest driving force behind scientific research.