88 quotes
Study of the scientific world cannot prescribe the orientation of something which is excluded from the scientific world.
Science and the Unseen World (1929)
The mind has an outlook which transcends the natural law by which it functions.
Science and the Unseen World (1929)
I think it is not irreligion but a tidiness of mind, which rebels against the idea of permeating scientific research with a religious implication.
Science and the Unseen World (1929)
It is an astonishing feat of deciphering that we should have been able to infer an orderly scheme of natural knowledge from such indirect communication.
Science and the Unseen World (1929)
These earlier revolutions are still a source of perplexity in childhood, which we soon outgrow; and a time will come when Einstein's amazing revelations have likewise sunk into the commonplaces of educated thought.
As truly as the mystic, the scientist is following a light; and it is not a false or an inferior light.
Science and the Unseen World (1929)
Objections to religious mysticism lose their force if they can equally be turned against natural mysticism.
Science and the Unseen World (1929)
Even if religion and morality are dismissed as illusion, the word "Ought" still has sway.
Science and the Unseen World (1929)
You will understand the true spirit neither of science nor of religion unless seeking is placed in the forefront.
Science and the Unseen World (1929)
Physics most strongly insists that its methods do not penetrate behind the symbolism.
Science and the Unseen World (1929)
We do not argue with the critic who urges that the stars are not hot enough for this process; we tell him to go and find a hotter place.
The Internal Constitution of Stars (1926)
Physical science comes nearest to that complete system of exact knowledge which all sciences have before them as an ideal. Some fall far short of it.
Science and the Unseen World (1929)
Ninety-nine people out of a hundred have not seriously considered what they mean by the term "exist" nor how a thing qualifies itself to be labelled real.
Science and the Unseen World (1929)
It is difficult for the matter-of-fact physicist to accept the view that the substratum of everything is of mental character. But no one can deny that mind is the first and most direct thing in our experience, and all else is remote inference — inference either intuitive or deliberate.
The Nature of the Physical World (1928)
The Newtonian scheme says that the planet tends to move in a straight line, but the sun's gravity pulls it away. Einstein says that the planet tends to take the shortest route and does take it.
The Nature of the Physical World (1928)
It is of interest to inquire what happens when the aviator's speed … approximates to the velocity of light.
Space, Time and Gravitation (1920)
The laws of logic do not prescribe the way our minds think; they prescribe the way our minds ought to think.
Science and the Unseen World (1929)
If indeed, the subatomic energy is being freely used to maintain their great furnaces, it seems to bring a little nearer to fulfillment our dreams of controlling this latent power for the well being of the humans-or for its suicide.
The Internal Constitution of the Stars (1920)
Wherever a way opens we are impelled to seek by the only methods that can be devised for that particular opening, not over-rating the security of our finding, but conscious that in this activity of mind we are obeying the light that is in our nature.
Science and the Unseen World (1929)
If in a community of the blind one man suddenly received the gift of sight, he would have much to tell which would not be at all scientific.
Science and the Unseen World (1929)