Wigner, Eugene

"The miracle of the appropriateness of the language of mathematics for the formulation of the laws of physics is a wonderful gift which we neither understand nor deserve."

"It is nice to know that the computer understands the problem. But I would like to understand it too."

"A physicist is just an atom's way of looking at itself."

"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."

"The task is not so much to see what no one has yet seen, but to think what nobody has yet thought about that which everybody sees."

"The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."

"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."

"One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to prevent imprisonment, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny."

"The scientist only imposes two things, namely truth and sincerity, conditions which ought to be imposed on everybody in all cases."

"Science is a fascinating study. It's a pity that it is wasted on scientists."

"In physics, you don't have to go around making trouble for yourself—nature does it for you."

"Knowledge and experience are two things that can never be taken away from you."

"The logic of physics should represent a reconstruction, idealized and generalized, of the logic in which physicists habitually think."

"One of the most important rules of conduct for a man is to know who he is and act accordingly."

"Peace is the only battle worth waging."

"An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in his field."

"The paradox is only a conflict between reality and your feeling of what reality ought to be."

"It is important for the very existence of science that minds exist which are willing to do what can be done."

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."

"Mathematics is the language in which God has written the universe."

"The most important discovery of my life is that a person can change his circumstances by a change of thought."

"We are all connected; everything affects everything else."

"The purpose of physics is to find the rules by which nature operates under any circumstances."

"No two people are ever the same, and their interactions are infinitely complex."

"Patience is not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting."

"The great mystery of existence is that anything exists at all."

"A problem well stated is a problem half solved."

"The principle of parsimony dictates that we should prefer simpler explanations over complex ones."

"Art and science are not opposed; they are both ways of understanding the world."

"In mathematics, you can have different laws of geometry, and still have a consistent mathematics."