Arthur Eddington Quotes

212 Sourced Quotes

Objections to religious mysticism lose their force if they can equally be turned against natural mysticism.

Arthur Eddington
Whatever else there may be in our nature, responsibility toward truth is one of its attributes.

Arthur Eddington
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.

Arthur Eddington
It is probably true that the recent changes of scientific thought remove some of the obstacles to a reconciliation of religion with science; but this must be carefully distinguished from any proposal to base religion on scientific discovery. For my own part I am wholly opposed to any such attempt.

Arthur Eddington
Science is an edged tool, with which men play like children, and cut their own fingers.

Arthur Eddington
Consciousness is not sharply defined, but fades into sub-consciousness; and beyond that we must postulate something indefinite but yet continuous with our mental nature. This I take it be the world-stuff.

Arthur Eddington
The whole subject-matter of exact science consists of pointer readings and similar indications.

Arthur Eddington
In the beginning was vastness, solitude and the deepest night. Darkness was upon the face of the deep, for as yet there was no light.

Arthur Eddington
Physics most strongly insists that its methods do not penetrate behind the symbolism.

Arthur Eddington
Distance and duration are the most fundamental terms in physics; velocity, acceleration, force, energy, and so on, all depend on them; and we can scarcely make any statement in physics without direct or indirect reference to them.

Arthur Eddington
If God is as real as the shadow of the Great War on Armistice Day, need we seek further reason for making a place for God in our thoughts and lives? We shall not be concerned if the scientific explorer reports that he is perfectly satisfied that he has got to the bottom of things without having come across either.

Arthur Eddington
I really cannot tell you anything about it, if you will not let me make measurements of any kind. Measurement is my only means of finding out about nature. I am not a metaphysicist.

Arthur Eddington
A hundred thousand million Stars make one Galaxy; A hundred thousand million Galaxies make one Universe. The figures may not be very trustworthy, but I think they give a correct impression.

Arthur Eddington
I have much to fear from the expert philosophical critic, but I am filled with even more apprehension at the thought of readers who may look to see whether the book is "on the side of the angels" and judge its trustworthiness accordingly.

Arthur Eddington
Study of the scientific world cannot prescribe the orientation of something which is excluded from the scientific world.

Arthur Eddington
To imagine that Newton's great scientific reputation is tossing up and down in these latter-day revolutions is to confuse science with omniscience.

Arthur Eddington
All change is relative. The universe is expanding relatively to our common material standards; our material standards are shrinking relatively to the size of the universe. The theory of the "expanding universe" might also be called the theory of the "shrinking atom".

Arthur Eddington
He is an incorruptible watch-dog who will not allow anything to pass which is not observationally true.

Arthur Eddington
It is by looking into our own nature that we first discover the failure of the physical universe to be co-extensive with our experience of reality. The "something to which truth matters" must surely have a place in reality what ever definition of reality we may adopt.

Arthur Eddington
When a physicist refers to curvature of space he at once falls under suspicion of talking metaphysics.

Arthur Eddington