--- title: "9 String Theorists Quotes by 5 authors" description: "Browse 9 String Theorists quotes by 5 authors. Discover the best String Theorists sayings and thoughts." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/71a/brian-greene-2334_essence_in-essence-we-string-theorists-have-been_541266.png" --- > [In essence, we string theorists have been trying to work out the score of the universe, the harmonies of the universe, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-greene/in-essence-we-string-theorists-have-been-trying-to-work-out-the-score/) [Brian Greene](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-greene/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/71a/brian-greene-2334_essence_in-essence-we-string-theorists-have-been_541266.png) > [Some string theorists prefer to believe that string theory is too arcane to be understood by human beings, rather than consider the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lee-smolin/some-string-theorists-prefer-to-believe-that-string-theory-is-too/) [Lee Smolin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lee-smolin/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/58c/lee-smolin-4171_arcane_some-string-theorists-prefer-to-believe_2561587.jpg) > [I will never probably have the mathematical foundation to truly understand what string theorists are talking about, but it feels good, just…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jon-spaihts/i-will-never-probably-have-the-mathematical-foundation-to-truly/) [Jon Spaihts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jon-spaihts/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/98c/jon-spaihts-19032_feel-good_i-will-never-probably-have-the-mathemati_110893.jpg) > [As of now, string theorists have no explanation of why there are three large dimensions as well as time, and the other…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-witten/as-of-now-string-theorists-have-no-explanation-of-why-there-are-three/) [Edward Witten](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-witten/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/807/edward-witten-16242_dimensions_as-of-now-string-theorists-have-no-expla_602253.png) > [“On the other hand, if string theorists are wrong, they can't be just a little wrong. If the new dimensions and symmetries…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lee-smolin/on-the-other-hand-if-string-theorists-are-wrong-they-can-t-be-just-a/) [Lee Smolin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lee-smolin/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/50d/lee-smolin-4171_theorists_on-the-other-hand-if-string-theorists-ar_1072290.jpg) > [“Like the old twistor theorists, the few followers Connes has acquired are committed. For a conference at Penn State University on different…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lee-smolin/like-the-old-twistor-theorists-the-few-followers-connes-has-acquired/) [Lee Smolin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lee-smolin/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/554/lee-smolin-4171_different-approach_like-the-old-twistor-theorists-the-few-f_2828419.png) > [“Particularly in physics, science’s fifty-year drift into the unscientific has recently reached a surreal apogee. String theory is widely considered ‘the only…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gordon-white/particularly-in-physics-science-s-fifty-year-drift-into-the/) [Gordon White](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gordon-white/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/528/gordon-white-19927_science_particularly-in-physics-science-s-fifty_2167763.jpg) > [“Galileo discovered new stars and moons, and later astronomers discovered new planets. All this would pale in the face of the discovery…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lee-smolin/galileo-discovered-new-stars-and-moons-and-later-astronomers/) [Lee Smolin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lee-smolin/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f41/lee-smolin-4171_theory_galileo-discovered-new-stars-and-moons-a_2099596.png) > [“The subject of this chapter is string theory, and I begin it with these reflections for two reasons. First, because the main…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lee-smolin/the-subject-of-this-chapter-is-string-theory-and-i-begin-it-with/) [Lee Smolin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lee-smolin/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8fc/lee-smolin-4171_general-relativity_the-subject-of-this-chapter-is-string-th_669894.png) ## Top authors on String Theorists - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b015/author-lee-smolin-59361.jpg) Lee Smolin 5 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/string-theorists/lee-smolin/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/string-theorists/#itemlist", "name": "String Theorists Quotes", "numberOfItems": 9, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "In essence, we string theorists have been trying to work out the score of the universe, the harmonies of the universe, the mathematical vibrations that the strings would play. So musical metaphors have been with us in science since the beginning.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brian Greene" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-greene/in-essence-we-string-theorists-have-been-trying-to-work-out-the-score/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/71a/brian-greene-2334_essence_in-essence-we-string-theorists-have-been_541266.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/71a/brian-greene-2334_essence_in-essence-we-string-theorists-have-been_541266.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/71a/brian-greene-2334_essence_in-essence-we-string-theorists-have-been_541266.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“In essence, we string theorists have been trying to work out the score of the universe, the harmonies of the…” — Brian Greene", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Some string theorists prefer to believe that string theory is too arcane to be understood by human beings, rather than consider the possibility that it might just be wrong.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Lee Smolin" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lee-smolin/some-string-theorists-prefer-to-believe-that-string-theory-is-too/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/58c/lee-smolin-4171_arcane_some-string-theorists-prefer-to-believe_2561587.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/58c/lee-smolin-4171_arcane_some-string-theorists-prefer-to-believe_2561587.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/58c/lee-smolin-4171_arcane_some-string-theorists-prefer-to-believe_2561587.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Some string theorists prefer to believe that string theory is too arcane to be understood by human beings…” — Lee Smolin", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I will never probably have the mathematical foundation to truly understand what string theorists are talking about, but it feels good, just for its own sake, to get as close to an understanding as you can.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jon Spaihts" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jon-spaihts/i-will-never-probably-have-the-mathematical-foundation-to-truly/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/98c/jon-spaihts-19032_feel-good_i-will-never-probably-have-the-mathemati_110893.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/98c/jon-spaihts-19032_feel-good_i-will-never-probably-have-the-mathemati_110893.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/98c/jon-spaihts-19032_feel-good_i-will-never-probably-have-the-mathemati_110893.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I will never probably have the mathematical foundation to truly understand what string theorists are talking…” — Jon Spaihts", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "As of now, string theorists have no explanation of why there are three large dimensions as well as time, and the other dimensions are microscopic. Proposals about that have been all over the map.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Edward Witten" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-witten/as-of-now-string-theorists-have-no-explanation-of-why-there-are-three/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/807/edward-witten-16242_dimensions_as-of-now-string-theorists-have-no-expla_602253.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/807/edward-witten-16242_dimensions_as-of-now-string-theorists-have-no-expla_602253.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/807/edward-witten-16242_dimensions_as-of-now-string-theorists-have-no-expla_602253.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“As of now, string theorists have no explanation of why there are three large dimensions as well as time, and…” — Edward Witten", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“On the other hand, if string theorists are wrong, they can't be just a little wrong. If the new dimensions and symmetries do not exist, then we will count string theorists among science's greatest failures, like those who continued to work on Ptolemaic epicycles while Kepler and Galileo forged ahead. Theirs will be a cautionary tale of how not to do science, how not to let theoretical conjecture get so far beyond the limits of what can rationally be argued that one starts engaging in fantasy.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Lee Smolin" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lee-smolin/on-the-other-hand-if-string-theorists-are-wrong-they-can-t-be-just-a/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/50d/lee-smolin-4171_theorists_on-the-other-hand-if-string-theorists-ar_1072290.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/50d/lee-smolin-4171_theorists_on-the-other-hand-if-string-theorists-ar_1072290.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/50d/lee-smolin-4171_theorists_on-the-other-hand-if-string-theorists-ar_1072290.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“On the other hand, if string theorists are wrong, they can't be just a little wrong. If the new dimensions…” — Lee Smolin", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 6, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Like the old twistor theorists, the few followers Connes has acquired are committed. For a conference at Penn State University on different approaches to quantum gravity, Alain recommended a famous elder French physicist named Daniel Kastler. The gentleman broke his leg in a bicycle accident a week before the conference, but he clambered out of the hospital and got himself to the Marseille airport, arriving just in time to open the proceedings with the following proclamation: \"There is one true Alain, and I am his messenger.\" String theorists aren't the only ones who have their true believers, but the noncommutative geometers surely have a better sense of humor.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Lee Smolin" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lee-smolin/like-the-old-twistor-theorists-the-few-followers-connes-has-acquired/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/554/lee-smolin-4171_different-approach_like-the-old-twistor-theorists-the-few-f_2828419.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/554/lee-smolin-4171_different-approach_like-the-old-twistor-theorists-the-few-f_2828419.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/554/lee-smolin-4171_different-approach_like-the-old-twistor-theorists-the-few-f_2828419.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Like the old twistor theorists, the few followers Connes has acquired are committed. For a conference at…” — Lee Smolin", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 7, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Particularly in physics, science’s fifty-year drift into the unscientific has recently reached a surreal apogee. String theory is widely considered ‘the only game in town’ when it comes to cosmology yet it has not made a single testable prediction about the universe. Ever. This has led some string theorists to suggest that if a theory is ‘elegant’ and ‘explanatory’ enough, it need not be tested experimentally! To put it another way, scientists’ science no longer needs to be scientific but you should still listen to them when they tell you what is true and what is not. And these are the guys telling us magic is irrational?”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Gordon White" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gordon-white/particularly-in-physics-science-s-fifty-year-drift-into-the/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/528/gordon-white-19927_science_particularly-in-physics-science-s-fifty_2167763.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/528/gordon-white-19927_science_particularly-in-physics-science-s-fifty_2167763.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/528/gordon-white-19927_science_particularly-in-physics-science-s-fifty_2167763.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Particularly in physics, science’s fifty-year drift into the unscientific has recently reached a surreal…” — Gordon White", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Galileo discovered new stars and moons, and later astronomers discovered new planets. All this would pale in the face of the discovery of new dimensions. Moreover, many string theorists believe that the myriad worlds described by the huge number of string theories reallybdo exist-as other universes impossible for us to see directly. If they are right, we see far less of reality than any group of cave dwellers saw of the earth. No one in human history has ever guessed correctly about such a large expansion of the known world.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Lee Smolin" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lee-smolin/galileo-discovered-new-stars-and-moons-and-later-astronomers/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f41/lee-smolin-4171_theory_galileo-discovered-new-stars-and-moons-a_2099596.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f41/lee-smolin-4171_theory_galileo-discovered-new-stars-and-moons-a_2099596.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f41/lee-smolin-4171_theory_galileo-discovered-new-stars-and-moons-a_2099596.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Galileo discovered new stars and moons, and later astronomers discovered new planets. All this would pale in…” — Lee Smolin", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 9, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“The subject of this chapter is string theory, and I begin it with these reflections for two reasons. First, because the main thing that is wrong with string theory, as presently formulated, is that it does not respect the fundamental lesson of general relativity that spacetime is nothing but an evolving system of relationships. Using the terminology I introduced in earlier chapters, string theory is background dependent, while general relativity is background independent. At the same time, string theory is unlikely to be in its final form. Even if, as is quite possible, string theory is ultimately reformulated in a background independent form, history may record that Einstein's view of Newton applies also to the string theorists: when it was necessary to ignore fundamental principle in order to make progress, they had the courage and the judgment to do so.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Lee Smolin" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lee-smolin/the-subject-of-this-chapter-is-string-theory-and-i-begin-it-with/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8fc/lee-smolin-4171_general-relativity_the-subject-of-this-chapter-is-string-th_669894.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8fc/lee-smolin-4171_general-relativity_the-subject-of-this-chapter-is-string-th_669894.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8fc/lee-smolin-4171_general-relativity_the-subject-of-this-chapter-is-string-th_669894.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The subject of this chapter is string theory, and I begin it with these reflections for two reasons. First…” — Lee Smolin", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } } ] }, { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/string-theorists/#webpage", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/string-theorists/", "name": "String Theorists Quotes", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/string-theorists/#itemlist" }, "primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/71a/brian-greene-2334_essence_in-essence-we-string-theorists-have-been_541266.png" }, "description": "Browse 9 String Theorists quotes by 5 authors. 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