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The important thing for the progress of physics is not the decision that a theory is true, but the decision that it is worth taking seriously—worth teaching to graduate students, worth writing textbooks about, above all, worth incorporating into one’s own research.

— Steven Weinberg Dreams of a Final Theory (1992)

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More quotes by Steven Weinberg

Elementary particles are terribly boring, which is one reason why we're so interested in them.

The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless.

Dreams of a Final Theory: The Search for the Fundamental Laws of Nature (1993)

The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things which lifts human life a little above the level of farce and gives it some of the grace of tragedy.

The First Three Minutes (1977)

It seems that scientists are often attracted to beautiful theories in the way that insects are attracted to flowers — not by logical deduction, but by something like a sense of smell.

Today for real mystery one has to look to cosmology and elementary particle physics.

All Steven Weinberg quotes →

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All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.

Albert Einstein Moral Decay (1937)

Science and religion are two human enterprises sharing many features.

Freeman Dyson Infinite in All Directions (1988)

To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection.

Henri Poincaré Science and Hypothesis (1901)

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