Paul Dirac Quotes

42 quotes in 743 categories

• Pick a flower on Earth and you move the farthest star.
• I think it is the general rule that the originator of a new idea is not the most suitable person to develop it, because his…
• A good deal of my research in physics has consisted in not setting out to solve some particular problem, but simply examining mathematical equations of…
• A great deal of my work is just playing with equations and seeing what they give.
• I learnt to distrust all physical concepts as the basis for a theory. Instead one should put one's trust in a mathematical scheme, even if…
• It is more important to have beauty in one's equations than to have them fit experiment... It seems that if one is working from the…
• Theoretical physicists accept the need for mathematical beauty as an act of faith... For example, the main reason why the theory of relativity is so…
• Just by studying mathematics we can hope to make a guess at the kind of mathematics that will come into the physics of the future…
• As time goes on, it becomes increasingly evident that the rules which the mathematician finds interesting are the same as those which Nature has chosen.
• Mathematics is the tool specially suited for dealing with abstract concepts of any kind and there is no limit to its power in this field.
• Hopes are always accompanied by fears, and, in scientific research, the fears are liable to become dominant.
• The research worker, in his efforts to express the fundamental laws of Nature in mathematical form, should strive mainly for mathematical beauty. He should take…
• If we are honest - and scientists have to be - we must admit that religion is a jumble of false assertions, with no basis…
• Living is worthwhile if one can contribute in some small way to this endless chain of progress.
• The measure of greatness in a scientific idea is the extent to which it stimulates thought and opens up new lines of research.
• The aim of science is to make difficult things understandable in a simpler way; the aim of poetry is to state simple things in an…
• I do not see how a man can work on the frontiers of physics and write poetry at the same time. They are in opposition.
• If there is a God, he's a great mathematician.
• It seems that if one is working from the point of view of getting beauty in one's equations, and if one has really a sound…
• The underlying physical laws necessary for the mathematical theory of a large part of physics and the whole of chemistry are thus completely known, and…

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