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Quantum mechanics is not itself a dynamical theory. It is an empty stage. You have to add the actors: You have to specify the space of configurations, an infinite-dimensional complex space, and the dynamical rules for how the state vector rotates in this space as time passes.

— Steven Weinberg

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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.

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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.