Quote#Books & Reading
Fundamental ideas play the most essential role in forming a physical…
Quote byAlbert Einstein · 1879–1955
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Evolution of Physics (1938) (co-written with Leopold Infeld).
English (original)
Fundamental ideas play the most essential role in forming a physical theory. Books on physics are full of complicated mathematical formulae. But thought and ideas, not formulae, are the beginning of every physical theory. The ideas must later take the mathematical form of a quantitative theory, to make possible the comparison with experiment.
— Albert Einstein
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