Arthur Eddington quotes - page 3

At terrestrial temperatures matter has complex properties which are likely to prove most difficult to unravel; but it is reasonable to hope that in the not too distant future we shall be competent to understand so simple a thing as a star. (Arthur Eddington)
We do not argue with the critic who urges that the stars are not hot enough for this process; we tell him to go and find a hotter place. View quote
Arthur Eddington
The writings of Einstein, Minkowski, Hilbert, Lorentz, Weyl, Robb, and others, have provided the groundwork; in the give and take of debate with friends and correspondents, the extensive ramifications have gradually appeared. View quote
Arthur Eddington
[Relativist] Rel. There is a well-known proposition of Euclid which states that "Any two sides of a triangle are together greater than the third side." Can either of you tell me whether nowadays there is good reason to believe that this proposition is true? [Pure Mathematician] Math. For my part, I am quite unable to say whether the proposition is true or not. I can deduce it by trustworthy reasoning from certain other propositions or axioms, which are supposed to be still more elementary. If these axioms are true, the proposition is true; if the axioms are not true, the proposition is not true universally. Whether the axioms are true or not I cannot say, and it is outside my province to consider. View quote
Arthur Eddington
[Experimental Physicist] Phys. I cannot imagine myself perceiving non-Euclidean space! Math. Look at the reflection of the room in a polished doorknob, and imagine yourself one of the actors in what you see going on there. View quote
Arthur Eddington
Never mind what two tons refers to. What is it? How has it entered in so definite a way into our exprerience? Two tons is the reading of the pointer when the elephant was placed on a weighing machine. Let us pass on. ... And so we see that the poetry fades out of the problem, and by the time the serious application of exact science begins we are left only with pointer readings. View quote
Arthur Eddington
The whole subject-matter of exact science consists of pointer readings and similar indications. View quote
Arthur Eddington
There is another passage from the Old Testament that comes nearer to my own sympathies - "And behold the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. ... And behold there came a voice unto him, and said. What doest thou here, Elijah?" View quote
Arthur Eddington
We have travelled far from the standpoint which identifies the real with the concrete. Even the older philosophy found it necessary to admit exceptions; for example, time must be admitted to be real, although no one could attribute to it a concrete nature. View quote
Arthur Eddington
Matter and all else that is in the physical world have been reduced to a shadowy symbolism. View quote
Arthur Eddington
The chairs and tables around us which broadcast to us incessantly those signals which affect our sight and touch cannot in their nature be like unto the signals or to the sensations which the signals awake at the end of their journey. (Arthur Eddington)
Physics most strongly insists that its methods do not penetrate behind the symbolism. View quote
Arthur Eddington
Mind is the first and most direct thing in our experience; all else is remote inference. View quote
Arthur Eddington
It remains a real world if there is a background to the symbols - an unknown quantity which the mathematical symbol x stands for. We think we are not wholly cut off from this background. It is to this background that our own personality and consciousness belong, and those spiritual aspects of our nature not to be described by any symbolism ... to which mathematical physics has hitherto restricted itself. View quote
Arthur Eddington
The problem of experiences is not limited to the interpretation of sense-impressions. View quote
Arthur Eddington
Study of the scientific world cannot prescribe the orientation of something which is excluded from the scientific world. View quote
Arthur Eddington
Consciousness is not wholly, nor even primarily a device for receiving sense-impressions. ... there is another outlook than the scientific one, because in practice a more transcendental outlook is almost universally admitted. ... who does not prize these moments that reveal to us the poetry of existence? View quote
Arthur Eddington
Our system of philosophy is itself on trial; it must stand or fall according as it is broad enough to find room for this experience as an element of life. View quote
Arthur Eddington
Our environment may and should mean something towards us which is not to be measured with the tools of the physicist or described by the metrical symbols of the mathematician. View quote
Arthur Eddington
Objections to religious mysticism lose their force if they can equally be turned against natural mysticism. View quote
Arthur Eddington
Materialism in its literal sense is long since dead. ... It is ... belief in the universal dominance of scientific law which is nowadays generally meant by materialism. (Arthur Eddington)
To those who have any intimate acquaintance with the laws of chemistry and physics the suggestion that the spiritual world could be ruled by laws of allied character is as preposterous as the suggestion that a nation could be ruled by laws like the laws of grammar. View quote
Arthur Eddington
The essential difference, which we meet in entering the realm of spirit and mind, seems to hang round the word "Ought." View quote
Arthur Eddington
The mind has an outlook which transcends the natural law by which it functions. View quote
Arthur Eddington
We do not want a religion that deceives us for our own good. View quote
Arthur Eddington