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If I have had any success in mathematical physics, it is, I think, because I have been able to dodge mathematical difficulties.

— Josiah Willard Gibbs Attributed

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Source, in full

Quoted by C. S. Hastings in "Biographical Memoir of Josiah Willard Gibbs 1839-1903," National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs, vol. VI (Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences, 1909), p. 390. Complete memoir

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More quotes by Josiah Willard Gibbs

His true monument lies not on the shelves of libraries, but in the thoughts of men, and in the history of more than one science.

One of the principal objects of theoretical research is to find the point of view from which the subject appears in the greatest simplicity.

One of the principal objects of research in my department of knowledge is to find the point of view from which the subject appears in the greatest simplicity.

We avoid the gravest difficulties when, giving up the attempt to frame hypotheses concerning the constitution of matter, we pursue statistical inquiries as a branch of rational mechanics.

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Attribution

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