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The reason we believe in relativity today is not because we had a great transition in our beliefs about what should be so. We believe in relativity because we have no choice. It's true — measured to be true.

— Robert B. Laughlin

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Faith

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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Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

William James The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897)

Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.

Thomas Jefferson Letter to Peter Carr (1787)

I had never doubted my own abilities, but I was quite prepared to believe that "the world" would decline to recognize them.

Colin Wilson Postscript to the Outsider (1967)

Love is the active, working principle in all true faith. It is its very soul, without which it is dead. "Faith works by love."

Jonathan Edwards Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

Attribution

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.