Murray Gell-Mann quotes

I think also of my colleagues in elementary particle theory in many lands, and feel that in some measure I am here as a representative of our small, informal, international fraternity. (Murray Gell-Mann)
Sometimes the probabilities are very close to certainties, but they're never really certainties. View quote
Murray Gell-Mann
If we look at the way the universe behaves, quantum mechanics gives us fundamental, unavoidable indeterminacy, so that alternative histories of the universe can be assigned probability. View quote
Murray Gell-Mann
If someone says that he can think or talk about quantum physics without becoming dizzy, that shows only that he has not understood anything whatever about it. View quote
Murray Gell-Mann
Enthusiasm is followed by disappointment and even depression, and then by renewed enthusiasm. View quote
Murray Gell-Mann
If I have seen further than others, it is because I am surrounded by dwarfs. View quote
Murray Gell-Mann
Just because things get a little dingy at the subatomic level doesn't mean all bets are off. View quote
Murray Gell-Mann
Three principles - the conformability of nature to herself, the applicability of the criterion of simplicity, and the "unreasonable effectiveness" of certain parts of mathematics in describing physical reality - are thus consequences of the underlying law of the elementary particles and their interactions. Those three principles need not be assumed as separate metaphysical postulates. Instead, they are emergent properties of the fundamental laws of physics. View quote
Murray Gell-Mann
Think how hard physics would be if particles could think. View quote
Murray Gell-Mann
I do not keep up with the details of particle physics. View quote
Murray Gell-Mann
But when researchers at Bell Labs discovered that static tends to come from particular places in the sky, the whole field of radio astronomy opened up. (Murray Gell-Mann)
I am frequently astonished that it so often results in correct predictions of experimental results. View quote
Murray Gell-Mann
We are driven by the usual insatiable curiosity of the scientist, and our work is a delightful game. View quote
Murray Gell-Mann
So the old Copenhagen interpretation needs to be generalized, needs to be replaced by something that can be used for the whole universe, and can be used also in cases where there is plenty of individuality and history. View quote
Murray Gell-Mann
You know, there was a time, just before I started to study physical science, when astronomers thought that systems such as we have here in the solar system required a rare triple collision of stars. View quote
Murray Gell-Mann
But I don't actually adopt the point of view that our subjective impression of free will, which is a kind of indeterminacy behavior, comes from quantum mechanical indeterminacy. View quote
Murray Gell-Mann
As a theoretical physicist, I feel at once proud and humble at the thought of the illustrious figures that have preceded me here to receive the greatest of all honors in science, the Nobel prize. View quote
Murray Gell-Mann
Hugh Everett's work has been described by many people in terms of many worlds, the idea being that every one of the various alternative histories, branching histories, is assigned some sort of reality. View quote
Murray Gell-Mann
Our planet doesn't seem to be the result of anything very special. View quote
Murray Gell-Mann
When you think you're listening to several conversations at once, they tell me, you may really simply be time sharing - that is, listening a little bit to this one, a little bit to that one. View quote
Murray Gell-Mann
I have been interested in phenomena involving complexity, diversity and evolution since I was a young boy. (Murray Gell-Mann)
Planets are too dim to be detected with existing equipment, far away, except in these very special circumstances where they're seen by their gravitational effect. View quote
Murray Gell-Mann
The chaos can act as a magnifier of quantum fluctuations so that they can produce sizable effects in the world around us. But we know that that can happen often. View quote
Murray Gell-Mann
What I try to do in the book is to trace the chain of relationships running from elementary particles, fundamental building blocks of matter everywhere in the universe, such as quarks, all the way to complex entities, and in particular complex adaptive system like jaguars. View quote
Murray Gell-Mann
In fact any experiment that measures a quantum effect is one in which the quantum effect is aligned with the behavior of some heavy, macroscopic object; that's how we measure it. View quote
Murray Gell-Mann