Wigner, Eugene

"One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to prevent one's friends from being hanged. In all else it is bad form to follow man's lead."

"The gift of mental power comes from God, Divine Being, and if we concentrate our minds on that truth, we may believe that we can only use our mentality in the way which is intended by God."

"God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, to being involved in an obscure non-deterministic process."

"Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding."

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

"The scientists only impotently protest, but the loyalty oath will presumably work."

"I received the fundamentals of my education in school, but that was not enough. My real education, the superstructure, the details, the true architecture, I got that later—life itself."

"Man can embody truth and he can embody error, but he cannot embody both."

"One of the most important principles for the thinker is to be willing to suffer for his convictions."

"The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it."

"When facing a difficult mathematical problem, sometimes stepping back and approaching it differently yields the answer."

"The absence of a mathematical solution does not mean the problem is unsolvable; it may only mean we are asking the wrong question."

"A scientist's task is not to guess nature's intent, but to describe her behavior."

"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower; the leader sees tomorrow where others see today."

"To understand deeply anything means to understand its history."

"The pursuit of knowledge is always valuable, regardless of its immediate application."

"The human mind is capable of being excited without the application of gross and violent stimulants."

"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research."

"Every sentence I utter must be understood as an attempt to clear my way to some clearer apprehension."

"Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful."

"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."

"We should not work on semiconductors, that is a filthy mess; who knows whether they really exist."

"God is subtle, but He is not malicious."

"The laws of nature are the canvas God laid down on which He painted His masterpiece."

"One should respect public opinion in so far as necessary to avoid starvation and keep one's friends from being hanged. In all else, bad form to follow it."

"Energy is the one thing time cannot destroy."

"The only real valuable thing is intuition; at the moment I am not sure I understand it."

"I think that it is very important that we do science for the fun of it."

"The task of science is not to discover God's purpose, but to describe His means."

"A body of interpretative work, making clear the sense of the original theory, is the middle path."