TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY ®  •  TODAYINSCI ®
Celebrating 24 Years on the Web
Find science on or your birthday

Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz
Who said: “Dangerous... to take shelter under a tree, during a thunder-gust. It has been fatal to many, both men and beasts.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index S > Category: Symmetry

Symmetry Quotes (44 quotes)

[The chemical bond] First, it is related to the disposition of two electrons (remember, no one has ever seen an electron!): next, these electrons have their spins pointing in opposite directions (remember, no one can ever measure the spin of a particular electron!): then, the spatial distribution of these electrons is described analytically with some degree of precision (remember, there is no way of distinguishing experimentally the density distribution of one electron from another!): concepts like hybridization, covalent and ionic structures, resonance, all appear, not one of which corresponds to anything that is directly measurable. These concepts make a chemical bond seem so real, so life-like, that I can almost see it. Then I wake with a shock to the realization that a chemical bond does not exist; it is a figment of the imagination that we have invented, and no more real than the square root of - 1. I will not say that the known is explained in terms of the unknown, for that is to misconstrue the sense of intellectual adventure. There is no explanation: there is form: there is structure: there is symmetry: there is growth: and there is therefore change and life.
Quoted in his obituary, Biographical Memoirs of the Fellows of the Royal Society 1974, 20, 96.
Science quotes on:  |  Adventure (69)  |  Bond (46)  |  Change (639)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Bond (7)  |  Concept (242)  |  Covalent (2)  |  Degree (277)  |  Density (25)  |  Direction (185)  |  Disposition (44)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Electron (96)  |  Exist (458)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Growth (200)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Known (453)  |  Life (1870)  |  Measure (241)  |  More (2558)  |  Next (238)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Precision (72)  |  Realization (44)  |  Remember (189)  |  Resonance (7)  |  Root (121)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Shock (38)  |  Spin (26)  |  Square (73)  |  Square Root (12)  |  Structure (365)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Two (936)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)

An amino acid residue (other than glycine) has no symmetry elements. The general operation of conversion of one residue of a single chain into a second residue equivalent to the first is accordingly a rotation about an axis accompanied by translation along the axis. Hence the only configurations for a chain compatible with our postulate of equivalence of the residues are helical configurations.
[Co-author with American chemist, ert B. Corey (1897-1971) and H. R. Branson]
'The Structure of Proteins: Two Hydrogen-bonded Helical Configurations of the Polypeptide Chain', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (1951), 37, 206.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Amino Acid (12)  |  Author (175)  |  Axis (9)  |  Chain (51)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Compatibility (4)  |  Configuration (8)  |  Conversion (17)  |  Element (322)  |  Equivalence (7)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  First (1302)  |  General (521)  |  Helix (10)  |  Operation (221)  |  Other (2233)  |  Postulate (42)  |  Residue (9)  |  Rotation (13)  |  Single (365)  |  Translation (21)

Are the atoms of the dextroacid (tartaric) grouped in the spirals of a right-hand helix or situated at the angles of an irregular tetrahedron, or arranged in such or such particular unsymmetrical fashion? We are unable to reply to these questions. But there can be no reason for doubting that the grouping of the atoms has an unsymmetrical arrangement with a non-superimposable image. It is not less certain that the atoms of the laevo-acid realize precisely an unsymmetrical arrangement of the inverse of the above.
Leçons de Chemie (1860), 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Angle (25)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Atom (381)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Group (83)  |  Helix (10)  |  Image (97)  |  Inverse (7)  |  Irregular (7)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Question (649)  |  Realize (157)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reply (58)  |  Right (473)  |  Spiral (19)  |  Superimposition (2)  |  Tetrahedron (4)

Louis Pasteur quote: Every chemical substance, whether natural or artificial, falls into one of two major categories, according
Every chemical substance, whether natural or artificial, falls into one of two major categories, according to the spatial characteristic of its form. The distinction is between those substances that have a plane of symmetry and those that do not. The former belong to the mineral, the latter to the living world.
Pasteur Vallery-Radot (ed.), Oeuvres de Pasteur (1922-1939), Vol. I, 331. Quoted in Patrice Debré, Louis Pasteur, trans. Elborg Forster (1994), 261.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Artificial (38)  |  Belong (168)  |  Category (19)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Do (1905)  |  Fall (243)  |  Form (976)  |  Former (138)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Major (88)  |  Mineral (66)  |  Natural (810)  |  Organic Chemistry (41)  |  Plane (22)  |  Spatial (10)  |  Substance (253)  |  Two (936)  |  World (1850)

Guided only by their feeling for symmetry, simplicity, and generality, and an indefinable sense of the fitness of things, creative mathematicians now, as in the past, are inspired by the art of mathematics rather than by any prospect of ultimate usefulness.
In The Queen of the Sciences (1938), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Creative (144)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fitness (9)  |  Generality (45)  |  Guide (107)  |  Indefinable (5)  |  Inspire (58)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Past (355)  |  Prospect (31)  |  Sense (785)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Usefulness (92)

I did some very technical work in partial differential equations, made an unsuccessful pass at shock waves, worked in scale invariant variational problems, made a poor stab at three manifold topology, learned gauge field theory and then some about applications to four manifolds, and have recently been working in equations with algebraic infinite symmetries. I find that I am bored with anything I understand. My excuse is that I am too poor an expositor to want to spend time on formal matters.
In 'A Personal Profile of Karen K. Uhlenbeck', collected in Susan Ambrose et al., Journeys of Women in Science and Engineering, No Universal Constants (1999).
Science quotes on:  |  Biography (254)  |  Bored (5)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Partial Differential (2)  |  Problem (731)  |  Shock Wave (3)  |  Topology (3)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Unsuccessful (4)

I suppose that I tend to be optimistic about the future of physics. And nothing makes me more optimistic than the discovery of broken symmetries. In the seventh book of the Republic, Plato describes prisoners who are chained in a cave and can see only shadows that things outside cast on the cave wall. When released from the cave at first their eyes hurt, and for a while they think that the shadows they saw in the cave are more real than the objects they now see. But eventually their vision clears, and they can understand how beautiful the real world is. We are in such a cave, imprisoned by the limitations on the sorts of experiments we can do. In particular, we can study matter only at relatively low temperatures, where symmetries are likely to be spontaneously broken, so that nature does not appear very simple or unified. We have not been able to get out of this cave, but by looking long and hard at the shadows on the cave wall, we can at least make out the shapes of symmetries, which though broken, are exact principles governing all phenomena, expressions of the beauty of the world outside.
In Nobel Lecture (8 Dec 1989), 'Conceptual Foundations of the Unified Theory of Weak and Electromagnetic Interactions.' Nobel Lectures: Physics 1971-1980 (1992), 556.
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Book (413)  |  Broken (56)  |  Cast (69)  |  Cave (17)  |  Describe (132)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Do (1905)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Expression (181)  |  Eye (440)  |  First (1302)  |  Future (467)  |  Governing (20)  |  Hard (246)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Long (778)  |  Looking (191)  |  Low (86)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Object (438)  |  Outside (141)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Plato (80)  |  Principle (530)  |  Prisoner (8)  |  Reality (274)  |  Republic (16)  |  Saw (160)  |  See (1094)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Shape (77)  |  Simple (426)  |  Study (701)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Tend (124)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Vision (127)  |  Wall (71)  |  World (1850)

If the mysterious influence to which the dissymmetry of nature is due should come to change in sense or direction, the constituting elements of all living beings would take an inverse dissymmetry. Perhaps a new world would be presented to us. Who could foresee the organization of living beings, if the cellulose, which is right, should become left, if the left albumen of the blood should become right? There are here mysteries which prepare immense labours for the future, and from this hour invite the most serious meditations in science.
Lecture (3 Feb 1860), to the Chemical Society of Paris, 'On the Molecular Dissymetry of Natural Organic Products', reprinted in The Chemical News and Journal of Industrial Science (3 May 1862), 5, No. 126, 248.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Blood (144)  |  Cellulose (3)  |  Change (639)  |  Direction (185)  |  Due (143)  |  Element (322)  |  Foresee (22)  |  Future (467)  |  Hour (192)  |  Immense (89)  |  Influence (231)  |  Labor (200)  |  Left (15)  |  Living (492)  |  Meditation (19)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Organization (120)  |  Present (630)  |  Right (473)  |  Sense (785)  |  Serious (98)  |  World (1850)

In attempting to discover how much blood passes from the veins into the arteries I made dissections of living animals, opened up arteries in them, and carried out various other investigations. I also considered the symmetry and size of the ventricles of the heart and of the vessels which enter and leave them (since Nature, who does nothing purposelessly, would not purposelessly have given these vessels such relatively large size). I also recalled the elegant and carefully contrived valves and fibres and other structural artistry of the heart; and many other points. I considered rather often and with care all this evidence, and took correspondingly long trying to assess how much blood was transmitted and in how short a time. I also noted that the juice of the ingested food could not supply this amount without our having the veins, on the one hand, completely emptied and the arteries, on the other hand, brought to bursting through excessive inthrust of blood, unless the blood somehow flowed back again from the arteries into the veins and returned to the right ventricle of the heart. In consequence, I began privately to consider that it had a movement, as it were, in a circle.
De Motu Cordis (1628), The Circulation of the Blood and Other Writings, trans. Kenneth j. Franklin (1957), Chapter 8, 57-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Amount (153)  |  Animal (651)  |  Back (395)  |  Blood (144)  |  Care (203)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Circle (117)  |  Circulation (27)  |  Completely (137)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Consider (428)  |  Discover (571)  |  Dissection (35)  |  Elegant (37)  |  Enter (145)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Excessive (24)  |  Flow (89)  |  Food (213)  |  Heart (243)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Large (398)  |  Living (492)  |  Long (778)  |  Movement (162)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Open (277)  |  Other (2233)  |  Point (584)  |  Return (133)  |  Right (473)  |  Short (200)  |  Somehow (48)  |  Structural (29)  |  Supply (100)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trying (144)  |  Various (205)  |  Vein (27)  |  Ventricle (7)  |  Vessel (63)

In geometric and physical applications, it always turns out that a quantity is characterized not only by its tensor order, but also by symmetry.
Epigraph in Charles W. Misner, Kip S. Thorn and John Archibald Wheeler, Gravitation (1970, 1973), 47. Cited as “(1925),” with no source.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Characterized (2)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Order (638)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physics (564)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Tensor (3)  |  Turn (454)

It [mathematics] is in the inner world of pure thought, where all entia dwell, where is every type of order and manner of correlation and variety of relationship, it is in this infinite ensemble of eternal verities whence, if there be one cosmos or many of them, each derives its character and mode of being,—it is there that the spirit of mathesis has its home and its life.
Is it a restricted home, a narrow life, static and cold and grey with logic, without artistic interest, devoid of emotion and mood and sentiment? That world, it is true, is not a world of solar light, not clad in the colours that liven and glorify the things of sense, but it is an illuminated world, and over it all and everywhere throughout are hues and tints transcending sense, painted there by radiant pencils of psychic light, the light in which it lies. It is a silent world, and, nevertheless, in respect to the highest principle of art—the interpenetration of content and form, the perfect fusion of mode and meaning—it even surpasses music. In a sense, it is a static world, but so, too, are the worlds of the sculptor and the architect. The figures, however, which reason constructs and the mathematic vision beholds, transcend the temple and the statue, alike in simplicity and in intricacy, in delicacy and in grace, in symmetry and in poise. Not only are this home and this life thus rich in aesthetic interests, really controlled and sustained by motives of a sublimed and supersensuous art, but the religious aspiration, too, finds there, especially in the beautiful doctrine of invariants, the most perfect symbols of what it seeks—the changeless in the midst of change, abiding things hi a world of flux, configurations that remain the same despite the swirl and stress of countless hosts of curious transformations.
In 'The Universe and Beyond', Hibbert Journal (1904-1906), 3, 314.
Science quotes on:  |  Abide (12)  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Alike (60)  |  Architect (32)  |  Art (680)  |  Artistic (24)  |  Aspiration (35)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Behold (19)  |  Being (1276)  |  Change (639)  |  Changeless (2)  |  Character (259)  |  Cold (115)  |  Color (155)  |  Configuration (8)  |  Construct (129)  |  Content (75)  |  Control (182)  |  Correlation (19)  |  Cosmos (64)  |  Countless (39)  |  Curious (95)  |  Delicacy (8)  |  Derive (70)  |  Despite (7)  |  Devoid (12)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Dwell (19)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Ensemble (8)  |  Especially (31)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Figure (162)  |  Find (1014)  |  Flux (21)  |  Form (976)  |  Fusion (16)  |  Glorify (6)  |  Grace (31)  |  Grey (10)  |  High (370)  |  Home (184)  |  Host (16)  |  Hue (3)  |  Illuminate (26)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Inner (72)  |  Interest (416)  |  Intricacy (8)  |  Invariant (10)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Logic (311)  |  Manner (62)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Midst (8)  |  Mode (43)  |  Mood (15)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motive (62)  |  Music (133)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Order (638)  |  Paint (22)  |  Pencil (20)  |  Penetration (18)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Poise (4)  |  Principle (530)  |  Psychic (15)  |  Pure (299)  |  Radiant (15)  |  Really (77)  |  Reason (766)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Religious (134)  |  Remain (355)  |  Respect (212)  |  Restrict (13)  |  Rich (66)  |  Same (166)  |  Sculptor (10)  |  Seek (218)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sensuous (5)  |  Sentiment (16)  |  Silent (31)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Solar (8)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Static (9)  |  Statue (17)  |  Stress (22)  |  Sublime (50)  |  Surpass (33)  |  Sustain (52)  |  Swirl (10)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Temple (45)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Tint (3)  |  Transcend (27)  |  Transformation (72)  |  True (239)  |  Type (171)  |  Variety (138)  |  Verity (5)  |  Vision (127)  |  World (1850)

It is perhaps difficult for a modern student of Physics to realize the basic taboo of the past period (before 1956) … it was unthinkable that anyone would question the validity of symmetries under “space inversion,” “charge conjugation” and “time reversal.” It would have been almost sacrilegious to do experiments to test such unholy thoughts.
In paper presented to the International Conference on the History of Original Ideas and Basic Discoveries, Erice, Sicily (27 Jul-4 Aug 1994), 'Parity Violation' collected in Harvey B. Newman, Thomas Ypsilantis History of Original Ideas and Basic Discoveries in Particle Physics (1996), 381.
Science quotes on:  |  Basic (144)  |  Charge (63)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Do (1905)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Modern (402)  |  Past (355)  |  Period (200)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Question (649)  |  Realize (157)  |  Space (523)  |  Student (317)  |  Taboo (5)  |  Test (221)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unthinkable (8)  |  Validity (50)

Leibnitz’s discoveries lay in the direction in which all modern progress in science lies, in establishing order, symmetry, and harmony, i.e., comprehensiveness and perspicuity,—rather than in dealing with single problems, in the solution of which followers soon attained greater dexterity than himself.
In Leibnitz (1884), 112.
Science quotes on:  |  Attain (126)  |  Comprehensive (29)  |  Deal (192)  |  Dexterity (8)  |  Direction (185)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Establish (63)  |  Follower (11)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Himself (461)  |  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (51)  |  Lie (370)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Modern (402)  |  Order (638)  |  Perspicuity (2)  |  Problem (731)  |  Progress (492)  |  Single (365)  |  Solution (282)  |  Soon (187)

Like the furtive collectors of stolen art, we [cell biologists] are forced to be lonely admirers of spectacular architecture, exquisite symmetry, dramas of violence and death, mobility, self-sacrifice and, yes, rococo sex.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Admirer (9)  |  Architecture (50)  |  Art (680)  |  Biologist (70)  |  Cell (146)  |  Collector (8)  |  Death (406)  |  Drama (24)  |  Exquisite (27)  |  Force (497)  |  Furtive (2)  |  Lonely (24)  |  Mobility (11)  |  Sacrifice (58)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Sacrifice (5)  |  Sex (68)  |  Spectacular (22)  |  Steal (14)  |  Violence (37)

Mathematicians attach great importance to the elegance of their methods and their results. This is not pure dilettantism. What is it indeed that gives us the feeling of elegance in a solution, in a demonstration? It is the harmony of the diverse parts, their symmetry, their happy balance; in a word it is all that introduces order, all that gives unity, that permits us to see clearly and to comprehend at once both the ensemble and the details. But this is exactly what yields great results, in fact the more we see this aggregate clearly and at a single glance, the better we perceive its analogies with other neighboring objects, consequently the more chances we have of divining the possible generalizations. Elegance may produce the feeling of the unforeseen by the unexpected meeting of objects we are not accustomed to bring together; there again it is fruitful, since it thus unveils for us kinships before unrecognized. It is fruitful even when it results only from the contrast between the simplicity of the means and the complexity of the problem set; it makes us then think of the reason for this contrast and very often makes us see that chance is not the reason; that it is to be found in some unexpected law. In a word, the feeling of mathematical elegance is only the satisfaction due to any adaptation of the solution to the needs of our mind, and it is because of this very adaptation that this solution can be for us an instrument. Consequently this esthetic satisfaction is bound up with the economy of thought.
In 'The Future of Mathematics', Monist, 20, 80. Translated from the French by George Bruce Halsted.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Accustomed (46)  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Aggregate (24)  |  Analogy (76)  |  Attach (57)  |  Balance (82)  |  Better (493)  |  Both (496)  |  Bound (120)  |  Chance (244)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Comprehend (44)  |  Contrast (45)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Detail (150)  |  Dilettante (2)  |  Diverse (20)  |  Due (143)  |  Elegance (40)  |  Ensemble (8)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  Generalization (61)  |  Glance (36)  |  Great (1610)  |  Happy (108)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Importance (299)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Law (913)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Meeting (22)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Neighboring (5)  |  Object (438)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Permit (61)  |  Possible (560)  |  Problem (731)  |  Pure (299)  |  Reason (766)  |  Result (700)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  See (1094)  |  Set (400)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Single (365)  |  Solution (282)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Together (392)  |  Unexpected (55)  |  Unforeseen (11)  |  Unity (81)  |  Word (650)  |  Yield (86)

Mathematics has beauties of its own—a symmetry and proportion in its results, a lack of superfluity, an exact adaptation of means to ends, which is exceedingly remarkable and to be found only in the works of the greatest beauty. … When this subject is properly and concretely presented, the mental emotion should be that of enjoyment of beauty, not that of repulsion from the ugly and the unpleasant.
In The Teaching of Mathematics in the Elementary and the Secondary School (1906), 44-45.
Science quotes on:  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Concretely (4)  |  Emotion (106)  |  End (603)  |  Enjoyment (37)  |  Exact (75)  |  Exceedingly (28)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Lack (127)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mental (179)  |  Present (630)  |  Properly (21)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Remarkable (50)  |  Repulsion (7)  |  Result (700)  |  Subject (543)  |  Superfluity (2)  |  Ugly (14)  |  Unpleasant (15)  |  Work (1402)

Maxwell's equations… originally consisted of eight equations. These equations are not “beautiful.” They do not possess much symmetry. In their original form, they are ugly. …However, when rewritten using time as the fourth dimension, this rather awkward set of eight equations collapses into a single tensor equation. This is what a physicist calls “beauty.”
In 'Quantum Heresy', Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the Tenth Dimension (1995), 130. Note: For two “beauty” criteria, unifying symmetry and economy of expression, see quote on this page beginning “When physicists…”
Science quotes on:  |  Awkward (11)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Call (781)  |  Collapse (19)  |  Consist (223)  |  Criterion (28)  |  Dimension (64)  |  Do (1905)  |  Equation (138)  |  Form (976)  |  Fourth Dimension (3)  |  Maxwell (42)  |  Maxwell�s Equations (3)  |  Original (61)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Possess (157)  |  Rewrite (4)  |  Satisfied (23)  |  Set (400)  |  Single (365)  |  Tensor (3)  |  Time (1911)  |  Ugly (14)

Nature seems to take advantage of the simple mathematical representations of the symmetry laws. When one pauses to consider the elegance and the beautiful perfection of the mathematical reasoning involved and contrast it with the complex and far-reaching physical consequences, a deep sense of respect for the power of the symmetry laws never fails to develop.
Nobel Lecture (11 Dec 1957). In Nobel Lectures: Physics, 1981-1990) (1998), 394-395.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Complex (202)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Consider (428)  |  Contrast (45)  |  Deep (241)  |  Develop (278)  |  Elegance (40)  |  Fail (191)  |  Involved (90)  |  Law (913)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Physical (518)  |  Power (771)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Representation (55)  |  Respect (212)  |  Sense (785)  |  Simple (426)

Nothing in physics seems so hopeful to as the idea that it is possible for a theory to have a high degree of symmetry was hidden from us in everyday life. The physicist's task is to find this deeper symmetry.
In American Scientist (1977) (as cited in The Atlantic (1984), 254, 81.) As an epigraph in Crystal and Dragon: The Cosmic Dance of Symmetry and Chaos in Nature, Art and Consciousness (1993), 139.
Science quotes on:  |  Degree (277)  |  Everyday (32)  |  Everyday Life (15)  |  Find (1014)  |  Hidden (43)  |  High (370)  |  Hope (321)  |  Hopeful (6)  |  Idea (881)  |  Life (1870)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Possible (560)  |  Seem (150)  |  Task (152)  |  Theory (1015)

Numbers … were his friends. In the simplest array of digits [Ramanujan] detected wonderful properties: congruences, symmetries and relationships which had escaped the notice of even the outstandingly gifted theoreticians.
In James R. Newman (ed.), 'Commentary on Srinivasa Ramanujan', The World of Mathematics (1956), Vol. 1, 367.
Science quotes on:  |  Array (5)  |  Congruence (3)  |  Detect (45)  |  Detection (19)  |  Digit (4)  |  Escape (85)  |  Friend (180)  |  Gift (105)  |  Gifted (25)  |  Notice (81)  |  Number (710)  |  Outstanding (16)  |  Property (177)  |  Srinivasa Ramanujan (17)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Theorist (44)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Wonderful (155)

Of possible quadruple algebras the one that had seemed to him by far the most beautiful and remarkable was practically identical with quaternions, and that he thought it most interesting that a calculus which so strongly appealed to the human mind by its intrinsic beauty and symmetry should prove to be especially adapted to the study of natural phenomena. The mind of man and that of Nature’s God must work in the same channels.
As quoted in W. E. Byerly (writing as a Professor Emeritus at Harvard University, but a former student at a Peirce lecture on Hamilton’s new calculus of quaternions), 'Benjamin Peirce: II. Reminiscences', The American Mathematical Monthly (Jan 1925), 32, No. 1, 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Algebra (117)  |  Appeal (46)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Channel (23)  |  God (776)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Identical (55)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Intrinsic (18)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mind Of Man (7)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Possible (560)  |  Practically (10)  |  Prove (261)  |  Quaternion (9)  |  Remarkable (50)  |  Same (166)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Study (701)  |  Thought (995)  |  Work (1402)

Our notion of symmetry is derived from the human face. Hence, we demand symmetry horizontally and in breadth only, not vertically nor in depth.
In Pensées (1670), Section 1, No. 28. As paraphrased in W.H. Auden and L. Kronenberger (eds.) The Viking Book of Aphorisms (1966). From the more complete translation, “Symmetry is what we see at a glance; based on the fact that there is no reason for any difference, and based also on the face of man; whence it happens that symmetry is only wanted in breadth, not in height or depth,” in Blaise Pascal and W.F. Trotter (trans.), 'Thoughts', collected in Charles W. Eliot (ed.), The Harvard Classics (1910), Vol. 48, 15. From the French, “Symétrie, en ce qu’on voit d’une vue, fondée sur ce qu’il n’y a pas de raison de faire autrement: et fondée aussi sur la figure de l’homme, d’où il arrive qu’on ne veut la symétrie qu’en largeur, non en hauteur ni profondeur,” in Blaise Pascal and Léon Brunschvicg (ed.), Pensées de Blaise Pascal (1904), Vol. 1, 37-38.
Science quotes on:  |  Breadth (15)  |  Demand (131)  |  Depth (97)  |  Derive (70)  |  Face (214)  |  Form (976)  |  Horizontal (9)  |  Human (1512)  |  Notion (120)  |  Vertical (4)

Since the beginning of physics, symmetry considerations have provided us with an extremely powerful and useful tool in our effort to understand nature. Gradually they have become the backbone of our theoretical formulation of physical laws.
Particle Physics and an Introduction to Field Theory (1981), 177.
Science quotes on:  |  Backbone (12)  |  Become (821)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Effort (243)  |  Formulation (37)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Law (913)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Law (15)  |  Physics (564)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Tool (129)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Useful (260)

Speaking about symmetry, look out our window, and you may see a cardinal attacking its reflection in the window. The cardinal is the only bird we have who often does this. If it has a nest nearby, the cardinal thinks there is another cardinal trying to invade its territory. It never realizes it is attacking its own reflection. Cardinals don’t know much about mirror symmetry!
In István Hargittai, 'A Great Communicator of Mathematics and Other Games: A Conversation with Martin Gardner', The Mathematical Intelligencer. (1997), 194(4), 36-40. Quoted in István and Magdolna Hargittai, In Our Own Image (2000), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Bird (163)  |  Cardinal (9)  |  Know (1538)  |  Look (584)  |  Mirror (43)  |  Nest (26)  |  Never (1089)  |  Realize (157)  |  Reflection (93)  |  See (1094)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Territory (25)  |  Think (1122)  |  Trying (144)  |  Window (59)

Symmetry, as wide or as narrow as you may define its meaning, is one idea by which man through the ages has tried to comprehend and create order, beauty and perfection.
Symmetry (1952), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Create (245)  |  Idea (881)  |  Man (2252)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Order (638)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Through (846)  |  Wide (97)

The artificial products do not have any molecular dissymmetry; and I could not indicate the existence of a more profound separation between the products born under the influence of life and all the others.
Quoted in Joseph S. Fruton, Proteins, Enzymes, Genes: The Interplay of Chemistry and Biology (1999), 135.
Science quotes on:  |  Artificiality (2)  |  Do (1905)  |  Existence (481)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Indication (33)  |  Influence (231)  |  Life (1870)  |  Molecule (185)  |  More (2558)  |  Organic Chemistry (41)  |  Other (2233)  |  Product (166)  |  Profound (105)  |  Separation (60)

The chief forms of beauty are order and symmetry and definiteness, which the mathematical sciences demonstrate in a special degree.
Aristotle
As translated in Book 13, 1078.a3, Aristotle’s Metaphysics, a Revised Text with Introduction and Commentary by W. D. Ross (1924), Vol. 2, 416.
Science quotes on:  |  Beauty (313)  |  Chief (99)  |  Definiteness (3)  |  Degree (277)  |  Demonstrate (79)  |  Form (976)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Order (638)  |  Special (188)

The genius of Laplace was a perfect sledge hammer in bursting purely mathematical obstacles; but, like that useful instrument, it gave neither finish nor beauty to the results. In truth, in truism if the reader please, Laplace was neither Lagrange nor Euler, as every student is made to feel. The second is power and symmetry, the third power and simplicity; the first is power without either symmetry or simplicity. But, nevertheless, Laplace never attempted investigation of a subject without leaving upon it the marks of difficulties conquered: sometimes clumsily, sometimes indirectly, always without minuteness of design or arrangement of detail; but still, his end is obtained and the difficulty is conquered.
In 'Review of “Théorie Analytique des Probabilites” par M. le Marquis de Laplace, 3eme edition. Paris. 1820', Dublin Review (1837), 2, 348.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Clumsiness (2)  |  Conquer (39)  |  Design (203)  |  Detail (150)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  End (603)  |  Leonhard Euler (35)  |  Feel (371)  |  Finish (62)  |  First (1302)  |  Genius (301)  |  Hammer (26)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (26)  |  Pierre-Simon Laplace (63)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Minuteness (8)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Obstacle (42)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Please (68)  |  Power (771)  |  Purely (111)  |  Result (700)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Sledge Hammer (3)  |  Still (614)  |  Student (317)  |  Subject (543)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Useful (260)

The mathematical sciences particularly exhibit order, symmetry, and limitation; and these are the greatest forms of the beautiful.
Aristotle
In Metaphysica, 3-1078b.
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Exhibit (21)  |  Form (976)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Order (638)

The order, the symmetry, the harmony enchant us ... God is pure order. He is the originator of universal harmony
…...
Science quotes on:  |  God (776)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Order (638)  |  Originator (7)  |  Pure (299)  |  Universal (198)

The person who did most to give to analysis the generality and symmetry which are now its pride, was also the person who made mechanics analytical; I mean Euler.
From History of the Inductive Sciences from the Earliest to the Present (1837), Vol. 2, 93.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Leonhard Euler (35)  |  Generality (45)  |  Mean (810)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Most (1728)  |  Person (366)  |  Pride (84)

The universe is a disymmetrical whole.
In René Vallery-Radot, The Life of Pasteur (1902), Vol. 1, 94.
Science quotes on:  |  Universe (900)  |  Whole (756)

Then if the first argument remains secure (for nobody will produce a neater one, than the length of the periodic time is a measure of the size of the spheres), the order of the orbits follows this sequence, beginning from the highest: The first and highest of all is the sphere of the fixed stars, which contains itself and all things, and is therefore motionless. It is the location of the universe, to which the motion and position of all the remaining stars is referred. For though some consider that it also changes in some respect, we shall assign another cause for its appearing to do so in our deduction of the Earth’s motion. There follows Saturn, the first of the wandering stars, which completes its circuit in thirty years. After it comes Jupiter which moves in a twelve-year long revolution. Next is Mars, which goes round biennially. An annual revolution holds the fourth place, in which as we have said is contained the Earth along with the lunar sphere which is like an epicycle. In fifth place Venus returns every nine months. Lastly, Mercury holds the sixth place, making a circuit in the space of eighty days. In the middle of all is the seat of the Sun. For who in this most beautiful of temples would put this lamp in any other or better place than the one from which it can illuminate everything at the same time? Aptly indeed is he named by some the lantern of the universe, by others the mind, by others the ruler. Trismegistus called him the visible God, Sophocles' Electra, the watcher over all things. Thus indeed the Sun as if seated on a royal throne governs his household of Stars as they circle around him. Earth also is by no means cheated of the Moon’s attendance, but as Aristotle says in his book On Animals the Moon has the closest affinity with the Earth. Meanwhile the Earth conceives from the Sun, and is made pregnant with annual offspring. We find, then, in this arrangement the marvellous symmetry of the universe, and a sure linking together in harmony of the motion and size of the spheres, such as could be perceived in no other way. For here one may understand, by attentive observation, why Jupiter appears to have a larger progression and retrogression than Saturn, and smaller than Mars, and again why Venus has larger ones than Mercury; why such a doubling back appears more frequently in Saturn than in Jupiter, and still more rarely in Mars and Venus than in Mercury; and furthermore why Saturn, Jupiter and Mars are nearer to the Earth when in opposition than in the region of their occultation by the Sun and re-appearance. Indeed Mars in particular at the time when it is visible throughout the night seems to equal Jupiter in size, though marked out by its reddish colour; yet it is scarcely distinguishable among stars of the second magnitude, though recognized by those who track it with careful attention. All these phenomena proceed from the same course, which lies in the motion of the Earth. But the fact that none of these phenomena appears in the fixed stars shows their immense elevation, which makes even the circle of their annual motion, or apparent motion, vanish from our eyes.
'Book One. Chapter X. The Order of the Heavenly Spheres', in Copernicus: On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (1543), trans. A. M. Duncan (1976), 49-51.
Science quotes on:  |  Affinity (27)  |  Animal (651)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Argument (145)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Attention (196)  |  Attentive (15)  |  Back (395)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Better (493)  |  Book (413)  |  Call (781)  |  Cause (561)  |  Change (639)  |  Cheat (13)  |  Circle (117)  |  Circuit (29)  |  Complete (209)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Consider (428)  |  Course (413)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Elevation (13)  |  Everything (489)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  God (776)  |  Govern (66)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Immense (89)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Jupiter (28)  |  Lamp (37)  |  Lantern (8)  |  Lie (370)  |  Linking (8)  |  Location (15)  |  Long (778)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Making (300)  |  Marked (55)  |  Mars (47)  |  Marvellous (25)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Measure (241)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Month (91)  |  Moon (252)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motion (320)  |  Move (223)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Next (238)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Observation (593)  |  Offspring (27)  |  Opposition (49)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Progression (23)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remaining (45)  |  Respect (212)  |  Retrogression (6)  |  Return (133)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Royal (56)  |  Ruler (21)  |  Saturn (15)  |  Say (989)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Show (353)  |  Solar System (81)  |  Space (523)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Still (614)  |  Sun (407)  |  Temple (45)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Track (42)  |  Understand (648)  |  Universe (900)  |  Venus (21)  |  Visible (87)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

Those who assert that the mathematical sciences make no affirmation about what is fair or good make a false assertion; for they do speak of these and frame demonstrations of them in the most eminent sense of the word. For if they do not actually employ these names, they do not exhibit even the results and the reasons of these, and therefore can be hardly said to make any assertion about them. Of what is fair, however, the most important species are order and symmetry, and that which is definite, which the mathematical sciences make manifest in a most eminent degree. And since, at least, these appear to be the causes of many things—now, I mean, for example, order, and that which is a definite thing, it is evident that they would assert, also, the existence of a cause of this description, and its subsistence after the same manner as that which is fair subsists in.
Aristotle
In Metaphysics [MacMahon] Bk. 12, chap. 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Actually (27)  |  Affirmation (8)  |  Appear (122)  |  Assert (69)  |  Assertion (35)  |  Cause (561)  |  Definite (114)  |  Degree (277)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Description (89)  |  Do (1905)  |  Eminent (20)  |  Employ (115)  |  Estimates of Mathematics (30)  |  Evident (92)  |  Example (98)  |  Exhibit (21)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fair (16)  |  False (105)  |  Frame (26)  |  Good (906)  |  Hardly (19)  |  Important (229)  |  It Is Evident (6)  |  Least (75)  |  Manifest (21)  |  Manner (62)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Most (1728)  |  Name (359)  |  Order (638)  |  Reason (766)  |  Result (700)  |  Same (166)  |  Say (989)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sense Of The Word (6)  |  Speak (240)  |  Species (435)  |  Subsist (5)  |  Subsistence (9)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Word (650)

Thy shadow, Earth, from Pole to Central Sea,
Now steals along upon the Moon's meek shine
In even monochrome and curving line Of imperturbable serenity.
How shall I link such sun-cast symmetry
With the torn troubled form I know as thine,
That profile, placid as a brow divine,
With continents of moil and misery?
'At a Lunar Eclipse'. In James Gibson (ed.), The Complete Poems of Thomas Hardy (1976), 116.
Science quotes on:  |  Cast (69)  |  Central (81)  |  Continent (79)  |  Divine (112)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Eclipse (25)  |  Form (976)  |  Know (1538)  |  Misery (31)  |  Moon (252)  |  Pole (49)  |  Sea (326)  |  Serenity (11)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Sun (407)  |  Torn (17)

Truth … and if mine eyes
Can bear its blaze, and trace its symmetries,
Measure its distance, and its advent wait,
I am no prophet—I but calculate.
From poem, 'The Prospects of the Future', collected in The Poetical Works of Charles Mackay: Now for the First Time Collected Complete in One Volume (1876), 447.
Science quotes on:  |  Advent (7)  |  Bear (162)  |  Blaze (14)  |  Calculate (58)  |  Distance (171)  |  Eye (440)  |  Measure (241)  |  Mine (78)  |  Prophet (22)  |  Trace (109)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Wait (66)

We called the new [fourth] quark the “charmed quark” because we were pleased, and fascinated by the symmetry it brought to the subnuclear world. “Charm” also means a “a magical device to avert evil,” and in 1970 it was realized that the old three quark theory ran into very serious problems. ... As if by magic the existence of the charmed quark would [solve those problems].
From asppearance in the BBC-TV program written by Nigel Calder, 'The Key to the Universe,' (27 Jan 1977). As cited in Arthur Lewis Caso, 'The Production of New Scientific Terms', American Speech (Summer 1980), 55, No. 2, 102.
Science quotes on:  |  Avert (5)  |  Bringing (10)  |  Call (781)  |  Charm (54)  |  Device (71)  |  Evil (122)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fascination (35)  |  Magic (92)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Particle (200)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Problem (731)  |  Quark (9)  |  Serious (98)  |  Solution (282)  |  Solve (145)  |  Theory (1015)  |  World (1850)

We have simply arrived too late in the history of the universe to see this primordial simplicity easily ... But although the symmetries are hidden from us, we can sense that they are latent in nature, governing everything about us. That's the most exciting idea I know: that nature is much simpler than it looks. Nothing makes me more hopeful that our generation of human beings may actually hold the key to the universe in our hands—that perhaps in our lifetimes we may be able to tell why all of what we see in this immense universe of galaxies and particles is logically inevitable.
Quoted in Nigel Calder, The Key to the Universe: A Report on the New Physics (1978), 185.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Everything (489)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Exciting (50)  |  Galaxies (29)  |  Galaxy (53)  |  Generation (256)  |  Governing (20)  |  Hidden (43)  |  History (716)  |  Hope (321)  |  Hopeful (6)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Idea (881)  |  Immense (89)  |  Inevitability (10)  |  Inevitable (53)  |  Key (56)  |  Know (1538)  |  Late (119)  |  Latent (13)  |  Lifetime (40)  |  Logic (311)  |  Look (584)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Particle (200)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Tell (344)  |  Universe (900)  |  Why (491)

What is it indeed that gives us the feeling of elegance in a solution, in a demonstration? It is the harmony of the diverse parts, their symmetry, their happy balance; in a word it is all that introduces order, all that gives unity, that permits us to see clearly and to comprehend at once both the ensemble and the details.
From 'L’Avenir des Mathématiques', Science et Méthode (1908, 1920), Livre Premier, Chap. 2, 25. English as in Henri Poincaré and George Bruce Halsted (trans.), 'The Future of Mathematics', Science and Method collected in The Foundations of Science: Science and Hypothesis, The Value of Science, Science and Method (1913), 372. From the French, “Qu’est-ce qui nous donne en effet dans une solution, dans une démonstration, le sentiment de l’élégance? C’est l’harmonie des diverses parties, leur symétrie, leur heureux balancement; c’est en un mot tout ce qui y met de l'ordre, tout ce qui leur donne de l’unité, ce qui nous permet par conséquent d’y voir clair et d’en comprendre l’ensemble en même temps que les détails”.
Science quotes on:  |  Balance (82)  |  Both (496)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Comprehend (44)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Detail (150)  |  Diverse (20)  |  Elegance (40)  |  Ensemble (8)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Happy (108)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Order (638)  |  Part (235)  |  Permit (61)  |  Proof (304)  |  See (1094)  |  Solution (282)  |  Unity (81)  |  Word (650)

Whatever is Natural doth by that appear, adorned with all imaginable Elegance and Beauty. There are such inimitable gildings and embroideries in the smallest seeds of Plants, but especially in the parts of Animals, in the head or eye of a small Fly: such accurate order and symmetry in the frame of the most minute creatures, a Lowse or a Mite, as no man were able to conceive without seeing of them. Whereas the most curious works of Art, the sharpest finest Needle, doth appear as a blunt rough bar of iron, coming from the furnace or the forge. The most accurate engravings or embossments, seem such rude bungling deformed works, as if they had been done with a Mattock or a Trowel.
In Of the Principles and Duties of Natural Religion (1675, 1699), 80.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Adornment (4)  |  Animal (651)  |  Art (680)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Coming (114)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Creature (242)  |  Curious (95)  |  Elegance (40)  |  Embroidery (2)  |  Engraving (4)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fly (153)  |  Forge (10)  |  Inimitable (6)  |  Iron (99)  |  Louse (6)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mattock (2)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Minute (129)  |  Mite (5)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (810)  |  Order (638)  |  Plant (320)  |  Seed (97)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Small (489)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Work (1402)

Wheeler’s First Moral Principle: Never make a calculation until you know the answer. Make an estimate before every calculation, try a simple physical argument (symmetry! invariance! conservation!) before every derivation, guess the answer to every paradox and puzzle. Courage: No one else needs to know what the guess is. Therefore make it quickly, by instinct. A right guess reinforces this instinct. A wrong guess brings the refreshment of surprise. In either case life as a spacetime expert, however long, is more fun!
In E.F. Taylor and J.A. Wheeler, Spacetime Physics (1992), 20.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Argument (145)  |  Bring (95)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Case (102)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Courage (82)  |  Derivation (15)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Expert (67)  |  First (1302)  |  Fun (42)  |  Guess (67)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Invariance (4)  |  Know (1538)  |  Know The Answer (9)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Moral (203)  |  More (2558)  |  Need (320)  |  Never (1089)  |  Paradox (54)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physics (564)  |  Principle (530)  |  Puzzle (46)  |  Quickly (21)  |  Refreshment (3)  |  Reinforce (5)  |  Reinforcement (2)  |  Right (473)  |  Simple (426)  |  Spacetime (4)  |  Surprise (91)  |  Try (296)  |  Wrong (246)

When physicists speak of “beauty” in their theories, they really mean that their theory possesses at least two essential features: 1. A unifying symmetry 2. The ability to explain vast amounts of experimental data with the most economical mathematical expressions.
In 'Quantum Heresy', Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the Tenth Dimension (1995), 127.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Amount (153)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Data (162)  |  Economical (11)  |  Essential (210)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Explain (334)  |  Expression (181)  |  Feature (49)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Most (1728)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Speak (240)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Two (936)  |  Vast (188)

When the formulae of inorganic chemical compounds are considered, even a superficial observer is struck with the general symmetry of their construction; the compounds of nitrogen, phosphorus, antimony and arsenic especially exhibit the tendency of the elements to form compounds containing 3 or 5 equivs. of other elements, and it is in these proportions that their affinities are best satisfied; thus in the ternal group we have NO3, NH3, NI3, NS3, PO3, PH3, PCl3, SbO3, SbH3, SbCl3, AsO3, AsH3, AsCl3 &c; and in the five-atom group NO4, NH4O, NH4I, PO5, PH4I, &c. Without offering any hypothesis regarding the cause of this symmetrical grouping of atoms, it is sufficiently evident, from the examples just given, that such a tendency or law prevails, and that, no matter what the character of the uniting atoms may be, the combining power of the attracting element, if I may be allowed the term, is always satisfied by the same number of these atoms.
'On a New Series of Organic Bodies Containing Metals', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 1852, 14:2, 440.
Science quotes on:  |  Antimony (7)  |  Arsenic (10)  |  Ash (21)  |  Atom (381)  |  Best (467)  |  Cause (561)  |  Character (259)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Compound (117)  |  Consider (428)  |  Construction (114)  |  Element (322)  |  Evident (92)  |  Form (976)  |  General (521)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Law (913)  |  Matter (821)  |  Nitrogen (32)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Phosphorus (18)  |  Power (771)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Term (357)

You boil it in sawdust: you salt it in glue:
You condense it with locusts and tape:
Still keeping one principal object in view—
To preserve its symmetrical shape.
In 'The Beaver’s Lesson', The Hunting of the Snark: An Agony in Eight Fits (1876), 56.
Science quotes on:  |  Boil (24)  |  Condense (15)  |  Glue (2)  |  Locust (2)  |  Object (438)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Principal (69)  |  Salt (48)  |  Shape (77)  |  Still (614)  |  Tape (5)  |  View (496)


Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
Quotations by:Albert EinsteinIsaac NewtonLord KelvinCharles DarwinSrinivasa RamanujanCarl SaganFlorence NightingaleThomas EdisonAristotleMarie CurieBenjamin FranklinWinston ChurchillGalileo GalileiSigmund FreudRobert BunsenLouis PasteurTheodore RooseveltAbraham LincolnRonald ReaganLeonardo DaVinciMichio KakuKarl PopperJohann GoetheRobert OppenheimerCharles Kettering  ... (more people)

Quotations about:Atomic  BombBiologyChemistryDeforestationEngineeringAnatomyAstronomyBacteriaBiochemistryBotanyConservationDinosaurEnvironmentFractalGeneticsGeologyHistory of ScienceInventionJupiterKnowledgeLoveMathematicsMeasurementMedicineNatural ResourceOrganic ChemistryPhysicsPhysicianQuantum TheoryResearchScience and ArtTeacherTechnologyUniverseVolcanoVirusWind PowerWomen ScientistsX-RaysYouthZoology  ... (more topics)
Sitewide search within all Today In Science History pages:
Visit our Science and Scientist Quotations index for more Science Quotes from archaeologists, biologists, chemists, geologists, inventors and inventions, mathematicians, physicists, pioneers in medicine, science events and technology.

Names index: | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |

Categories index: | 1 | 2 | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Thank you for sharing.
- 100 -
Sophie Germain
Gertrude Elion
Ernest Rutherford
James Chadwick
Marcel Proust
William Harvey
Johann Goethe
John Keynes
Carl Gauss
Paul Feyerabend
- 90 -
Antoine Lavoisier
Lise Meitner
Charles Babbage
Ibn Khaldun
Euclid
Ralph Emerson
Robert Bunsen
Frederick Banting
Andre Ampere
Winston Churchill
- 80 -
John Locke
Bronislaw Malinowski
Bible
Thomas Huxley
Alessandro Volta
Erwin Schrodinger
Wilhelm Roentgen
Louis Pasteur
Bertrand Russell
Jean Lamarck
- 70 -
Samuel Morse
John Wheeler
Nicolaus Copernicus
Robert Fulton
Pierre Laplace
Humphry Davy
Thomas Edison
Lord Kelvin
Theodore Roosevelt
Carolus Linnaeus
- 60 -
Francis Galton
Linus Pauling
Immanuel Kant
Martin Fischer
Robert Boyle
Karl Popper
Paul Dirac
Avicenna
James Watson
William Shakespeare
- 50 -
Stephen Hawking
Niels Bohr
Nikola Tesla
Rachel Carson
Max Planck
Henry Adams
Richard Dawkins
Werner Heisenberg
Alfred Wegener
John Dalton
- 40 -
Pierre Fermat
Edward Wilson
Johannes Kepler
Gustave Eiffel
Giordano Bruno
JJ Thomson
Thomas Kuhn
Leonardo DaVinci
Archimedes
David Hume
- 30 -
Andreas Vesalius
Rudolf Virchow
Richard Feynman
James Hutton
Alexander Fleming
Emile Durkheim
Benjamin Franklin
Robert Oppenheimer
Robert Hooke
Charles Kettering
- 20 -
Carl Sagan
James Maxwell
Marie Curie
Rene Descartes
Francis Crick
Hippocrates
Michael Faraday
Srinivasa Ramanujan
Francis Bacon
Galileo Galilei
- 10 -
Aristotle
John Watson
Rosalind Franklin
Michio Kaku
Isaac Asimov
Charles Darwin
Sigmund Freud
Albert Einstein
Florence Nightingale
Isaac Newton


by Ian Ellis
who invites your feedback
Thank you for sharing.
Today in Science History
Sign up for Newsletter
with quiz, quotes and more.