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I slowly became disillusioned with the reductionist ideal of physics, for it was completely clear that the oucome of these experiments was almost always impossible to predict from first principles, yet was right and meaningful...

— Robert B. Laughlin

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More quotes by Robert B. Laughlin

The most interesting thing I learned during this time was how small a nuclear warhead was.

Nobel Prize autobiography (1998)

The modern concept of the vacuum of space, confirmed every day by experiment, is a relativistic ether. But we do not call it this because it is taboo.

The great power of science is its ability, through brutal objectivity, to reveal to us truth we did not anticipate. In this it continues to be invaluable, and one of the greatest of human creations.

The world is full of intelligent, well-meaning people who, for one reason or another, did not attend university but are nonetheless well-read and educated.

Nobel Prize autobiography (1998)

Real understanding of a thing comes from taking it apart oneself, not reading about it in a book or hearing about it in a classroom.

Nobel Prize autobiography (1998)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Robert B. Laughlin (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.