21 quotes
Like many other crucially important technologies, hay emerged anonymously during the so-called Dark Ages.
Infinite in All Directions (1988)
An awareness of our smallness may help to redeem us from the arrogance which is the besetting sin of the scientists.
Infinite in All Directions (1988)
The technologies which have had the most profound effects on human life are usually simple.
Infinite in All Directions (1988)
Science and religion are two human enterprises sharing many features.
Infinite in All Directions (1988)
God is what mind becomes when it has passed beyond our comprehension.
Infinite in All Directions (1988)
There is no easy solution to the conflict between fundamentalist Christian dogma and the facts of biological evolution.
Infinite in All Directions (1988)
The most salient features of all these enterprises are discipline and diversity.
Infinite in All Directions (1988)
It is too early yet to come to conclusions.
Infinite in All Directions (1988)
Science is not a monolithic body of doctrine. Science is a culture, constantly growing and changing.
Infinite in All Directions (1988)
A point has no existence by itself. It exists only as a part of the pattern of relationships which constitute the geometry of Euclid.
Infinite in All Directions (1988)
Science has as many competing styles as painting or poetry. The diversity of science also finds a parallel in the diversity of religion.
Infinite in All Directions (1988)
Scientifically speaking, a butterfly is at least as mysterious as a superstring. When something ceases to be mysterious it ceases to be of absorbing interest to scientists. Almost all things scientists think and dream about are mysterious.
Infinite in All Directions (1988)
Without discipline there can be no greatness. Without diversity there can be no freedom. Greatness for the enterprise, freedom for the individual — these are the two themes, contrasting but not incompatible, that make up the history of science and the history of religion.
Infinite in All Directions (1988)
We must be careful not to discourage our twelve-year-olds by making them waste the best years of their lives preparing for examinations.
Infinite in All Directions (1988)
I do not make any clear distinction between mind and God. God is what mind becomes when it has passed beyond the scale of our comprehension.
Infinite in All Directions (1988)
The right way to ask the question is: How does the concept of a point fit into the logical structure of Euclid's geometry? ...It cannot be answered by a definition.
Infinite in All Directions (1988)
Fifty years ago Kurt Gödel... proved that the world of pure mathematics is inexhaustible. … I hope that the notion of a final statement of the laws of physics will prove as illusory as the notion of a formal decision process for all mathematics.
Infinite in All Directions (1988)
What was needed was a little more human charity, a little more willingness to listen rather than to lay down the law, a little more humility. Scientists stand in need of these Christian virtues just as much as preachers do.
Infinite in All Directions (1988)
Imagine, if you can, four things that have very different sizes. First, the entire universe. Second, the planet Earth. Third, the nucleus of an atom. Fourth, a superstring. The step in size from each of these things to the next is roughly the same... twenty powers of ten....
Infinite in All Directions (1988)
What philosophical conclusions should we draw from the abstract style of the superstring theory? We might conclude, as Sir James Jeans concluded long ago, that the Great Architect of the Universe now begins to appear as a Pure Mathematician, and that if we work hard enough at mathematics we shall be able to read his mind. Or we might conclude that our pursuit of abstractions is leading us far away from those parts of the creation which are most interesting from a human point of view. It is too early yet to come to conclusions.
Infinite in All Directions (1988)