Dirac, Paul

"One must pursue truth with unwavering dedication."

"Scientific progress depends on challenging conventional wisdom."

"Nature's laws are written in mathematical language."

"The greatest theories are also the simplest."

"Perseverance in the face of setbacks separates great scientists from good ones."

"The fundamental laws necessary for the mathematical treatment of a large part of physics, chemistry and biology are thus completely known, and the difficulty is only that the exact application of these laws leads to equations much too complicated to be soluble."

"It is more important to have beauty in one's equations than to have them fit experiment."

"The scientist only imposes two things, namely truth and sincerity, conditions which are a priori acceptable to all."

"In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it is the exact opposite."

"Quantum mechanics makes absolutely no sense."

"The methods of theoretical physics should be applicable to all the sciences."

"The task is to modify the theory in order to agree with the results of exact experiments."

"One should aim at simplicity and elegance in one's approach to problems."

"Mathematics is the tool specially suited for dealing with abstract concepts of any kind and there is no limit to its applications."

"The foundation of the theory should be simple. It is more important to have beauty in one's equations than to have them fit an experiment."

"People who are willing to give up essential liberties for temporary security deserve neither."

"If you want to work in theoretical physics, you don't have to know anything about anything, but you must understand everything about something."

"The underlying physical laws necessary for the mathematical treatment of a large part of physics are thus completely known."

"Creativity in science, as in art, requires a certain degree of irrationality."

"One must be prepared to follow up the consequences of one's beliefs to whatever lengths they may take one."

"A theory with mathematical beauty is more likely to be correct than an ugly one."

"The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence."

"In any field, find the simplest formulation; the truth usually lies there."

"New ideas in physics and mathematics are not usually formed through some elaborate process of logical deduction, but rather by an act of the creative imagination."

"Dirac's dictum: it is more important to have beauty in one's equations than to have them fit the experiment."

"The progress of science is the discovery of a sequence of unexpected things."

"I think there is a moral obligation in every scientist to make beauty in their work."

"If we are to believe that living matter is not infinitely complex, we must assume that what is left over after explaining all the ordinary phenomena of biology by ordinary chemical means is a finite amount of complexity."

"Unification is the pursuit of the whole, and the whole is beauty."

"One should always look for a beautiful mathematical principle."