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Mind is the first and most direct thing in our experience; all else is remote inference.

— Arthur Eddington Science and the Unseen World (1929)

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More quotes by Arthur Eddington

Physics has in the main contented itself with studying the abridged edition of the book of nature.

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

New Pathways in Science (1935)

All change is relative. The universe is expanding relatively to our common material standards; our material standards are shrinking relatively to the size of the universe.

The Expanding Universe (1933)

The whole subject-matter of exact science consists of pointer readings and similar indications.

The Nature of the Physical World (1928)

In the stars matter has its preliminary brewing to prepare the greater variety of elements which are needed for a world of life.

The Internal Constitution of the Stars (1920)

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The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.

H. P. Lovecraft The Call of Cthulhu (1926)

Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.

Kenneth Boulding to Kenneth Boulding in: United States. Congress. House (1973)

The greater part of humanity is too much harassed and fatigued by the struggle with want, to rally itself for a new and sterner struggle with error.

Friedrich Schiller On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1794)

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

George Bernard Shaw Maxims for Revolutionists (1903)

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