Arthur Eddington

The whole subject-matter of exact science consists of pointer readings and similar indications.

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 …

Schrödinger's wave-mechanics is not a physical theory, but a dodge — and a very good dodge too.

If I let my fingers wander idly over the keys of a typewriter it might happen that my screed made an intelligible sentence. If an army of monkeys were strumming on typewriters they might write all the books in the British Museum. The …

Shuffling is the only thing which Nature cannot undo.

The quest of the absolute leads into the four-dimensional world.

There was just one alternative, the earth’s true velocity through space might happen to have been nil.

In the world of physics we watch a shadowgraph performance of the drama of familiar life.

The external world of physics has thus become a world of shadows. In removing our illusions we have removed the substance, for indeed we have seen that substance is one of the greatest of our illusions.

The man in the street is always making this demand for concrete explanation of the things referred to in science; but of necessity he must be disappointed.

The idealistic tinge in my conception of the physical world arose out of mathematical researches on the relativity theory. In so far as I had any earlier philosophical views, they were of an entirely different complexion.

We have found a strange foot-print on the shores of the unknown. We have devised profound theories, one after another, to account for its origins. At last, we have succeeded in reconstructing the creature that made the footprint. And lo! …

Some mechanism seems to be needed, whereby either gravitation creates matter, or all the matter in the universe conspires to define a law of gravitation.

he does not perceive that the next instant is a long time coming.

The aviator himself detects nothing unusual

We are saved the difficulty of imagining how the processes of life can go on in two dimensions, because nothing goes on.

It is of interest to inquire what happens when the aviator's speed … approximates to the velocity of light.

that is too absurd for fiction, and is an idea only to be found in the sober pages of science.

It is the reciprocity of these appearances — that each party should think the other has contracted — that is so difficult to realise.

[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.

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.

[T]he geometry of relativity in its perfect harmony expresses a truth... which my bowdlerised version misses. But the mind is not content to leave scientific Truth in a dry husk of mathematical symbols, and demands that it shall be alloyed …

By his theory of relativity Albert Einstein has provoked a revolution of thought in physical science. ...Physical space and time are found to be closely bound... with... motion of the observer; and only an amorphous combination of the two …

if he is not yet destined to reach the sun and solve for all time the riddle of its constitution, yet he may hope to learn from his journey some hints to build a better machine.