Fiddle Quotes (2 quotes)
First, [Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation] is mathematical in its expression…. Second, it is not exact; Einstein had to modify it…. There is always an edge of mystery, always a place where we have some fiddling around to do yet…. But the most impressive fact is that gravity is simple…. It is simple, and therefore it is beautiful…. Finally, comes the universality of the gravitational law and the fact that it extends over such enormous distances…
In The Character of Physical Law (1965, 2001), 33.
The trouble with the integers is that we have examined only the small ones. Maybe all the exciting stuff happens at really big numbers, ones we can’t get our hands on or even begin to think about in any very definite way. So maybe all the action is really inaccessible and we’re just fiddling around.
As quoted by Paul Hoffman, 'The Man Who Loves Only Numbers', The Atlantic (Nov 1987), 260, No. 5, 74. Also quoted in Clifford Pickover, 'Preface', Wonders of Numbers: Adventures in Mathematics, Mind and Meaning (2000), x.
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) -- 
