Famous Quotes & Sayings

Stephen Hawking

I would rather be right than rigorous.

Stephen Hawking

So long as the universe had a beginning, we could suppose it had a creator. But if the universe is really completely self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither beginning nor end: it would simply be. What place, then, for a creator?

Stephen Hawking

One is always a long way from solving a problem until one actually has the answer.

Stephen Hawking

So Einstein was wrong when he said, "God does not play dice." Consideration of black holes suggests, not only that God does play dice, but that he sometimes confuses us by throwing them where they can't be seen.

Stephen Hawking

Not only does God play dice, but... he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen.

Stephen Hawking

Maybe I'm being a bit harsh on philosophers, but they have not been very kind to me... I have been variously called nominalist, an instrumentalist, a positivist, a realist, and several other ists. The technique seems refutation by denigration: If you can attach a label to my approach, you don't have to say what is wrong with it... I am sure that Einstein, Heisenberg and Dirac didn't worry about whether they were realists or instrumentalists.

Stephen Hawking

There could be whole antiworlds and antipeople made out of antiparticles. However, if you ever meet your antiself, don't shake hands! You would both vanish in a great flash of light.

Stephen Hawking

There are grounds for cautious optimism that we may now be near the end ofthe search for the ultimate laws of nature.

Stephen Hawking

Science predicts that many different kinds of universe will be spontaneously created out of nothing. It is a matter of chance which we are in.

Stephen Hawking

More often than politicians, but not as often as they should.

Stephen Hawking

We live in the most probable of all possible worlds.

Sigourney Weaver

I don't really see science fiction as fiction. I can imagine colonies on Mars and everything.

Sigmund Freud

The reproaches against science for not having yet solved the problems of the universe are exaggerated in an unjust and malicious manner; it has truly not had time enough yet for these great achievements. Science is very young--a human activity which developed late.

Sigmund Freud

When someone abuses me I can defend myself, but against praise I am defenceless.

Sigmund Freud

In the last analysis the entire field of psychology may reduce to biological electrochemistry.

Sigmund Freud

It is unreasonable to expect science to produce a system of ethics-ethics are a kind of highway code for traffic among mankind-and the fact that in physics atoms which were yesterday assumed to be square are now assumed to be round is exploited with unjustified tendentiousness by all who are hungry for faith; so long as physics extends our dominion over nature, these changes ought to be a matter of complete indifference to you.

Sigmund Freud

When we attempt to imagine death, we perceive ourselves as spectators.

Sigmund Freud

No, our science is no illusion. But an illusion it would be to suppose that what science cannot give us we can get elsewhere.

Steven Weinberg

Rational argument can be defeated by refusing to argue rationally.

Ridley Scott

Blade Runner appears regularly, two or three times a year in various shapes and forms of science fiction. It set the pace for what is essentially urban science fiction, urban future and it's why I've never re-visited that area because I feel I've done it.

Ridley Scott

I think if I'm going to do a science fiction, I'm going to go down a new path that I want to do.

If you think there are no new frontiers, watch a boy ring the front doorbell on his first date.

Richard Hamming

It is better to do the right problem the wrong way than the wrong problem the right way.

Richard Hamming

There are wavelengths that people cannot see, there are sounds that people cannot hear, and maybe computers have thoughts that people cannot think.

Richard Hamming

Newton said, "If I have seen further than others, it is because I've stood on the shoulders of giants." These days we stand on each other's feet!

Richard Hamming

A parable: A man was examining the construction of a cathedral. He asked a stone mason what he was doing chipping the stones, and the mason replied, "I am making stones." He asked a stone carver what he was doing. "I am carving a gargoyle." And so it went, each person said in detail what they were doing. Finally he came to an old woman who was sweeping the ground. She said. "I am helping build a cathedral." ...Most of the time each person is immersed in the details of one special part of the whole and does not think of how what they are doing relates to the larger picture.

Combinatorial analysis, in the trivial sense of manipulating binomial and multinomial coefficients, and formally expanding powers of infinite series by applications ad libitum and ad nauseamque of the multinomial theorem, represented the best that academic mathematics could do in the Germany of the late 18th century.

Certain functions appear so often that it is convenient to give them names. These are collectively called special functions. There are many examples and no single way of looking at them can illuminate all examples or even all the important properties of a single example of a special function.

Scott Adams

Stem cells are like toenail clippings with a better career plan.

Scott Adams

Every generation of humans believed it had all the answers it needed, except for a few mysteries they assumed would be solved at any moment. And they all believed their ancestors were simplistic and deluded. What are the odds that you are the first generation of humans who will understand reality ?

Scott Adams

Science is a good thing. News reporters are good things too. But it's never a good idea to put them in the same room.

Scott Adams

For five hundred dollars, I'll name a subatomic particle after you. Some of my satisfied customers include Arthur C. Quark and George Meson.

Scott Adams

Dilbert: It took weeks but I've calculated a new theory about the origin of the universe. According to my calculations it didn't start with a "Big Bang" at all-it was more of "Phhbwt" sound. You may be wondering about the practical applications of the "Little Phhbwt" theory. Dogbert: I was wondering when you'll go away.