--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Physics is an organized body of knowledge…" description: "\"Physics is an organized body of knowledge about nature, and a student of it says that he is learning physics, not nature. Art, like nature, has to be d..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/97d/northrop-frye-3483_art_physics-is-an-organized-body-of-knowledg_192989.jpg" --- # Physics is an organized body of knowledge about nature… ![“Physics is an organized body of knowledge about nature, and a student of it says that he is learning physics, not nature. Art, like nature, has to be distinguished from the systematic study of it, which is criticism.” quote by Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/97d/northrop-frye-3483_art_physics-is-an-organized-body-of-knowledg_192989.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/97d/northrop-frye-3483_art_physics-is-an-organized-body-of-knowledg_192989.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/97d/northrop-frye-3483_art_physics-is-an-organized-body-of-knowledg_192989.jpg) > “Physics is an organized body of knowledge about nature, and a student of it says that he is learning physics, not nature. Art, like nature, has to be distinguished from the systematic study of it, which is criticism.” [Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Distinguishes learning physics (studying nature) from studying art, which requires criticism beyond mere observation. **In simple terms:** Studying art needs critique, not just observation. Key Takeaway Apply critical analysis to creative work. Themes art criticism education Mood analytical thoughtful Type philosophical educational When to use this quote - art classes - creative writing - museum visits - academic research Key Concepts epistemology interpretation methodology Questions to Reflect On - How does criticism enhance understanding? - When might it hinder expression? A Different Perspective Criticism can stifle spontaneous creativity. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Art](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/art/) [Body](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/body/) [Criticism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/criticism/) [Distinguished](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/distinguished/) [Education](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/education/) [Knowledge Nature](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/knowledge-nature-349753/) [Learning Physics](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/learning-physics-2033914/) [Nature](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nature/) [Nature Student](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nature-student-2033915/) [Organized](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/organized/) [Physics](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/physics/) [Physics Nature](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/physics-nature-1250798/) [Students](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/students/) [Study](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/study/) [Systematic](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/systematic/) [Theory](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/theory/) ## Related quotes > [For many years, I hated nature. As a student, I refused to put a plant anywhere - a living plant, that is. Dead plants…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/zaha-hadid/for-many-years-i-hated-nature-as-a-student-i-refused-to-put-a-plant/) [Zaha Hadid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/zaha-hadid/) > [“In other words, there is no single underlying reality that is independent of our observations. “It is wrong to think that the task of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-isaacson/in-other-words-there-is-no-single-underlying-reality-that-is/) [Walter Isaacson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-isaacson/) > [“Niels Bohr, the great Dane of quantum physics, was fond of saying, "It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-mitchell/niels-bohr-the-great-dane-of-quantum-physics-was-fond-of-saying-it-is/) [David Mitchell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-mitchell/) > [It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how Nature is. Physics concerns what we say about Nature.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/niels-bohr/it-is-wrong-to-think-that-the-task-of-physics-is-to-find-out-how/) [Niels Bohr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/niels-bohr/) > [The word philosophy, as distinguished from science, is misleading, for it implies that what philosophy contains is impossible to be a systematic body of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kedar-joshi/the-word-philosophy-as-distinguished-from-science-is-misleading-for/) [Kedar Joshi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kedar-joshi/) > [Nature's economy shall be the base for our own, for it is immutable, but ours is secondary. An economist without knowledge of nature is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-linnaeus/nature-s-economy-shall-be-the-base-for-our-own-for-it-is-immutable/) [Carl Linnaeus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-linnaeus/) > [“If the ignorance of nature gave birth to such a variety of gods, the knowledge of this nature is calculated to destroy them.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-henri-thiry-d-holbach/if-the-ignorance-of-nature-gave-birth-to-such-a-variety-of-gods-the/) [Paul Henri Thiry d'Holbach](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-henri-thiry-d-holbach/) > [“Grosseteste influenced Roger Bacon's ideas about mathematics and Nature. Bacon wrote hundreds of pages on the subject and, indeed, no historical figure has ever…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-d-barrow/grosseteste-influenced-roger-bacon-s-ideas-about-mathematics-and/) [John D. Barrow](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-d-barrow/) > [Although the formulations of science now offer the most advanced knowledge of nature, men continue to use obsolete forms of thought long discarded by…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/max-horkheimer/although-the-formulations-of-science-now-offer-the-most-advanced/) [Max Horkheimer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/max-horkheimer/) > [The search for truth is in one way hard and in another way easy, for it is evident that no one can master it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aristotle/the-search-for-truth-is-in-one-way-hard-and-in-another-way-easy-for/) [Aristotle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aristotle/) > [It's from love and knowledge of nature that any sensible understanding must come. Technology is essentially antagonistic to nature - that in fact is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kirkpatrick-sale/it-s-from-love-and-knowledge-of-nature-that-any-sensible/) [Kirkpatrick Sale](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kirkpatrick-sale/) > [When I speak of knowledge of nature, I do not mean industrial science, which argues that nature is inert and can be understood only…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kirkpatrick-sale/when-i-speak-of-knowledge-of-nature-i-do-not-mean-industrial-science/) [Kirkpatrick Sale](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kirkpatrick-sale/) > [Scientific knowledge is, by its nature, provisional. This is due to the fact that as time goes on, with the invention of better instruments,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/priyamvada-natarajan/scientific-knowledge-is-by-its-nature-provisional-this-is-due-to-the/) [Priyamvada Natarajan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/priyamvada-natarajan/) > [Knowledge of Nature is an account at bank, where each dividend is added to the principal and the interest is ever compounded; and hence…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/grove-karl-gilbert/knowledge-of-nature-is-an-account-at-bank-where-each-dividend-is/) [Grove Karl Gilbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/grove-karl-gilbert/) > [“devote what time I may still have to live to no other occupation than that of endeavoring to acquire some knowledge of Nature, which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/russell-shorto/devote-what-time-i-may-still-have-to-live-to-no-other-occupation-than/) [Russell Shorto](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/russell-shorto/) ## More by Northrop Frye > [I soon realized that a student of English literature who does not know the Bible does not understand a good deal of what is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/i-soon-realized-that-a-student-of-english-literature-who-does-not/) [Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/) > [Our country has shown a lack of will to resist its own disintegration .. . Canada is practically the only country left in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/our-country-has-shown-a-lack-of-will-to-resist-its-own-disintegration/) [Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/) > [“The only thing that words can do with any real precision or accuracy is hang together. Accuracy of description in language is not possible…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/the-only-thing-that-words-can-do-with-any-real-precision-or-accuracy/) [Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/) > [The bedrock of doubt is the total nothingness of death. Death is a leveler, not because everybody dies, but because nobody understands what death…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/the-bedrock-of-doubt-is-the-total-nothingness-of-death-death-is-a/) [Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/) > [Even the human heart is slightly left of centre.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/even-the-human-heart-is-slightly-left-of-centre/) [Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/) > [Literature as a whole is not an aggregate of exhibits with red and blue ribbons attached to them, like a cat-show, but the range…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/literature-as-a-whole-is-not-an-aggregate-of-exhibits-with-red-and/) [Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/) > [One doesn't bother to believe the credible: the credible is believed already, by definition. There's no adventure of the mind.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/one-doesn-t-bother-to-believe-the-credible-the-credible-is-believed/) [Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/) > [Culture's essential service to a religion is to destroy intellectual idolatry, the recurrent tendency in religion to replace the object of its worship with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/culture-s-essential-service-to-a-religion-is-to-destroy-intellectual/) [Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/) > [“Tendintele autoritate ale conservatorismului trebuie corectate prin mituri ale libertatii, in vreme ce un simt conservator al ordinii trebuie sa tempereze tendintele liberalismului spre…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/tendintele-autoritate-ale-conservatorismului-trebuie-corectate-prin/) [Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/) > [Literature is a human apocalypse, man's revelation to man, and criticism is not a body of adjudications, but the awareness of that revelation, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/literature-is-a-human-apocalypse-man-s-revelation-to-man-and/) [Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/) > [“The particular myth that's been organizing this talk, and in a way the whole series, is the story of the Tower of Babel in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/the-particular-myth-that-s-been-organizing-this-talk-and-in-a-way-the/) [Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/) > [Every human society possesses a mythology which is inherited, transmitted and diversified by literature.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/every-human-society-possesses-a-mythology-which-is-inherited/) [Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/) > [Science begins with the world we have to live in, accepting its data and trying to explain its laws. From there, it moves toward…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/science-begins-with-the-world-we-have-to-live-in-accepting-its-data/) [Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/) > [In the world of the imagination, anything goes that's imaginatively possible, but nothing really happens.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/in-the-world-of-the-imagination-anything-goes-that-s-imaginatively/) [Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/) > [The world of literature is a world where there is no reality except that of the human imagination.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/northrop-frye/the-world-of-literature-is-a-world-where-there-is-no-reality-except/) [Northrop Frye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/) [Explore all 129 Northrop Frye quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/northrop-frye/) ## More Art quotes > [True works of art contain their own theory and give us the measurement according to which we should judge them.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/true-works-of-art-contain-their-own-theory-and-give-us-the/) [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/) > [Before Noah, men having only water to drink, could not find the truth. Accordingly...they became abominably wicked, and they were justly exterminated by the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/benjamin-franklin/before-noah-men-having-only-water-to-drink-could-not-find-the-truth/) [Benjamin Franklin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/benjamin-franklin/) > [“Hear the sum of the whole matter in the compass of one brief word — every art possessed by man comes from Prometheus.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aeschylus/hear-the-sum-of-the-whole-matter-in-the-compass-of-one-brief-word/) [Aeschylus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aeschylus/) > [I think most artists feel like they're outside society - no matter how many accolades they receive, or how much money is in your…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aaron-rose/i-think-most-artists-feel-like-they-re-outside-society-no-matter-how/) [Aaron Rose](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aaron-rose/) > [The capacity to be puzzled is the premise of all creation, be it in art or in science.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erich-fromm/the-capacity-to-be-puzzled-is-the-premise-of-all-creation-be-it-in/) [Erich Fromm](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erich-fromm/) > [That's the great secret of creativity. You treat ideas like cats: you make them follow you.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ray-bradbury/that-s-the-great-secret-of-creativity-you-treat-ideas-like-cats-you/) [Ray Bradbury](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ray-bradbury/) > [“So, really," continued Jacob as if this were perfectly normal to expound on art in these circumstances, "when you think about it, the artists…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/justina-chen-headley/so-really-continued-jacob-as-if-this-were-perfectly-normal-to-expound/) [Justina Chen Headley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/justina-chen-headley/) > [“There are two options in art; either to adopt philosophical life by dissecting art, or to write your own philosophical life and claim it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/taf-teh/there-are-two-options-in-art-either-to-adopt-philosophical-life-by/) [Taf Teh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/taf-teh/) > [The house has to serve comfort. The work of art is revolutionary; the house is conservative.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adolf-loos/the-house-has-to-serve-comfort-the-work-of-art-is-revolutionary-the/) [Adolf Loos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adolf-loos/) > [During human progress, every science is evolved out of its corresponding art.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herbert-spencer/during-human-progress-every-science-is-evolved-out-of-its/) [Herbert Spencer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herbert-spencer/) > [In literature and art memory is a synonym for invention. It is the life-blood of imagination, which faints and dies when the veins are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-aris-willmott/in-literature-and-art-memory-is-a-synonym-for-invention-it-is-the/) [Robert Aris Willmott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-aris-willmott/) > [I think a business guy is different from an artist. They walk different paths. Artists create the best outputs when they're having fun. And…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-dragon/i-think-a-business-guy-is-different-from-an-artist-they-walk/) [G-Dragon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-dragon/) > [“The only thing--I tell you this straight from the heart--that disgusts me in Salzburg is that one can't have any proper social intercourse with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wolfgang-amadeus-mozart/the-only-thing-i-tell-you-this-straight-from-the-heart-that-disgusts/) [Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wolfgang-amadeus-mozart/) > [The sublime in art is the attempt to express the infinite without finding in the realm of phenomena any object which proves itself fitting…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel/the-sublime-in-art-is-the-attempt-to-express-the-infinite-without/) [Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel/) > [Art isn't done to decorate apartments, but to wage war against the enemy.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pablo-picasso/art-isn-t-done-to-decorate-apartments-but-to-wage-war-against-the/) [Pablo Picasso](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pablo-picasso/) [Browse all 48,643 Art quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/art/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Physics is an organized body of knowledge about nature, and a student of it says that he is learning physics, not nature. 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