Arthur Eddington Quotes

• An ocean traveler has even more vividly the impression that the ocean is made of waves than that it is made of water.

  Arthur Eddington

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  Tags in Science

• I think it is something of the same sort of security we should seek in our relationship with God. The most flawless proof of the existence of God is no substitute for it; and if we have that relationship, the most convincing disproof is turned aimlessly aside. If I may say it with reverence, the soul and God laugh together over so odd a conclusion.

  Arthur Eddington

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• I ask you to look both ways. For the road to a knowledge of the stars leads through the atom; and important knowledge of the atom has been reached through the stars.

  Arthur Eddington

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• Let us draw an arrow arbitrarily. If as we follow the arrow we find more and more of the random element in the world, then the arrow is pointing towards the future; if the random element decreases the arrow points towards the past… I shall use the phrase ‘time’s arrow’ to express this one-way property of time which has no analogue in space.

  Arthur Eddington

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• Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.

  Arthur Eddington

  Topics in Trust

  Tags in School, Reality, Science

• If an army of monkeys were strumming on typewriters, they might write all the books in the British Museum.

  Arthur Eddington

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  Tags in British, Monkeys, Book

• It is even possible that laws which have not their origin in the mind may be irrational, and we can never succeed in formulating them.

  Arthur Eddington

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  Tags in Laws, Irrationality, Formulating, Courage

• It is one thing for the human mind to extract from the phenomena of nature the laws which it has itself put into them; it may be a far harder thing to extract laws over which it has no control.

  Arthur Eddington

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• It is sound judgment to hope that in the not too distant future we shall be competent to understand so simple a thing as a star.

  Arthur Eddington

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  Tags in Competent, Distant, Hope, Sound, Judgment

• Proof is an idol before whom the pure mathematician tortures himself.

  Arthur Eddington

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  Tags in Proof, Tortures, Mathematician, Idol

• Every body continues in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, except insofar as it doesn’t.

  Arthur Eddington

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  Tags in Insofar, Rest, Body

• It is also a good rule not to put overmuch confidence in the observational results that are put forward until they are confirmed by theory.

  Arthur Eddington

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Observational, School

• The mathematics is not there till we put it there.

  Arthur Eddington

  Topics in Math

  Tags in Mathematics, Mathematician

• It is impossible to trap modern physics into predicting anything with perfect determinism because it deals with probabilities from the outset.

  Arthur Eddington

  Tags in Predicting, Determinism, Mathematical, Deals, Physics

• Oh leave the Wise our measures to collate. One thing at least is certain, light has weight. One thing is certain and the rest debate. Light rays, when near the Sun, do not go straight.

  Arthur Eddington

  Tags in Collate, Measures, Rays

• Probably the simplest hypothesis… is that there may be a slow process of annihilation of matter.

  Arthur Eddington

  Tags in Annihilation, Hypothesis

• Shuffling is the only thing which Nature cannot undo.

  Arthur Eddington

  Tags in Undo, Shuffle

• The quest of the absolute leads into the four-dimensional world.

  Arthur Eddington

  Tags in Absolute, Quest

• We have found a strange footprint on the shores of the unknown.

  Arthur Eddington

  Tags in Priori, Footprints

• Who will observe the observers?

  Arthur Eddington

Arthur Eddington (24)

Birth:	28th December, 1882
Death:	22nd November, 1944
Nationality:	British
Profession:	Astronomer, Mathematician, Philosopher, Physicist

About

Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington was born in Kendal, Westmorland, England. He was a British astronomer, physicist, and mathematician of the early 20th century who did his greatest work in astrophysics. He was also a philosopher of science and a popularizer of science. The Eddington limit, the natural limit to the luminosity of stars, or the radiation generated by accretion onto a compact object, is named in his honour. He is famous for his work regarding the theory of relativity. He also conducted an expedition to observe the Solar eclipse of 29 May 1919 that provided one of the earliest confirmations of relativity, and he became known for his popular expositions and interpretations of the theory. He graduated with a B.Sc. in physics with First Class Honours in 1902.  After receiving his M.A. in 1905, he began research on thermionic emission in the Cavendish Laboratory.

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