Arthur Eddington

[P]erhaps there is something to be said for .

I suppose that the applied mathematician whose theory had just passed one still more stringent test by observation ought not to feel satisfaction, but rather disappointment—"Foiled again! This time I had hoped to find a discordance which …

We have been pulling at the wrong end of the tangle, which has to be unravelled by a different approach. But after a general agreement with observation is established, and the tangle begins to loosen, we should always make ready for the …

There is no need for disappointment at the failure of the model to give perfect agreement with observation; it has served its purpose, for it has distinguished what are the features of the actual which require new conditions for their …

When the properties of an ideal model have been worked out by rigorous mathematics, all the underlying assumptions being clearly understood, then it becomes possible to say that such-and-such properties and laws lead precisely to …

If indeed, the subatomic energy is being freely used to maintain their great furnaces, it seems to bring a little nearer to fulfillment our dreams of controlling this latent power for the well being of the humans-or for its suicide.

[T]he atoms of all elements are built of atoms bound together... the interior of a star seems as likely a place as any for the evolution to have occurred... a great amount of energy must have been set free; in a star a vast amount of …

In the stars matter has its preliminary brewing to prepare the greater variety of elements which are needed for a world of life.

the interferometer method does not in principle require great apertures, but rather two small apertures widely separated

[T]heoretical researches of Einstein and Weyl make it probable that the space which remains beyond is not illimitable; not merely the material universe, but also space itself, is perhaps finite...

I think that science would never have achieved much progress if it had always imagined unknown obstacles hidden round every corner. At least we may peer gingerly round the corner, and perhaps we shall find there is nothing very formidable …

A star is drawing on some vast reservoir of energy by means unknown to us. This reservoir can scarcely be other than the sub-atomic energy which, it is known, exists abundantly in all matter; we sometimes dream that man will one day learn …

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.

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.

These earlier revolutions are still a source of perplexity in childhood, which we soon outgrow; and a time will come when Einstein's amazing revelations have likewise sunk into the commonplaces of educated thought.

The present revolution of scientific thought follows in natural sequence on the great revolutions at earlier epochs in the history of science

Physics has in the main contented itself with studying the abridged edition of the book of nature.