Paul Dirac quotes - page 2

The underlying physical laws necessary for the mathematical theory of a large part of physics and the whole of chemistry 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 therefore becomes desirable that approximate practical methods of applying quantum mechanics should be developed, which can lead to an explanation of the main features of complex atomic systems without too much computation. (Paul Dirac)
If you are receptive and humble, mathematics will lead you by the hand. Again and again, when I have been at a loss how to proceed, I have just had to wait until I have felt the mathematics led me by the hand. It has led me along an unexpected path, a path where new vistas open up, a path leading to new territory, where one can set up a base of operations, from which one can survey the surroundings and plan future progress. View quote
Paul Dirac
Living is worthwhile if one can contribute in some small way to this endless chain of progress. View quote
Paul Dirac
As time goes on, it becomes increasingly evident that the rules which the mathematician finds interesting are the same as those which Nature has chosen. View quote
Paul Dirac
No. I had successfully solved the difficulty of finding a description of the electron which was consistent with both relativity and quantum mechanics. Of course, when you solve one difficulty, other new difficulties arise. You then try to sove them. You can never solve all difficulties at once. View quote
Paul Dirac
If we are honest - and scientists have to be - we must admit that religion is a jumble of false assertions, with no basis in reality. The very idea of God is a product of the human imagination. View quote
Paul Dirac
It seems to be one of the fundamental features of nature that fundamental physical laws are described in terms of a mathematical theory of great beauty and power. View quote
Paul Dirac
Just by studying mathematics we can hope to make a guess at the kind of mathematics that will come into the physics of the future. View quote
Paul Dirac
It seems clear that the present quantum mechanics is not in its final form. View quote
Paul Dirac
I do not see how a man can work on the frontiers of physics and write poetry at the same time. They are in opposition. View quote
Paul Dirac
It seems clear that the present quantum mechanics is not in its final form. Some further changes will be needed, just about as drastic as the changes made in passing from Bohr's orbit theory to quantum mechanics. Some day a new quantum mechanics, a relativistic one, will be discovered, in which we will not have these infinities occurring at all. It might very well be that the new quantum mechanics will have determinism in the way that Einstein wanted. (Paul Dirac)
It seems to be one of the fundamental features of nature that fundamental physical laws are described in terms of a mathematical theory of great beauty and power, needing quite a high standard of mathematics for one to understand it. You may wonder: Why is nature constructed along these lines? One can only answer that our present knowledge seems to show that nature is so constructed. We simply have to accept it. One could perhaps describe the situation by saying that God is a mathematician of a very high order, and He used very advanced mathematics in constructing the universe. Our feeble attempts at mathematics enable us to understand a bit of the universe, and as we proceed to develop higher and higher mathematics we can hope to understand the universe better. View quote
Paul Dirac
A theory with mathematical beauty is more likely to be correct than an ugly one that fits some experimental data. View quote
Paul Dirac
There are always more people who prefer to speak than to listen. View quote
Paul Dirac
Scientific progress is measured in units of courage, not intelligence. View quote
Paul Dirac
I consider that I understand an equation when I can predict the properties of its solutions, without actually solving it. View quote
Paul Dirac
A physical law must possess mathematical beauty. View quote
Paul Dirac
If there is a God, he's a great mathematician. View quote
Paul Dirac
I do not see how a man can work on the frontiers of physics and write poetry at the same time. They are in opposition. In science you want to say something that nobody knew before, in words which everyone can understand. In poetry you are bound to say ... something that everyone knows already in words that nobody can understand. Commenting to him about the poetry J. Robert Oppenheimer wrote. View quote
Paul Dirac
It is more important to have beauty in one's equations than to have them fit experiment. View quote
Paul Dirac
I found the best ideas usually came, not when one was actively striving for them, but when one was in a more relaxed state... I used to take long solitary walks on Sundays, during which I tended to review the current situation in a leisurely way. Such occasions often proved fruitful, even though (or perhaps, because) the primary purpose of the walk was relaxation and not research. (Paul Dirac)
A termination of one's life is necessary in the scheme of things to provide a logical reason for unselfishness. . . . The fact that there is an end to one's life compels one to take an interest in things that will continue to live after one is dead. View quote
Paul Dirac
What makes the theory of relativity so acceptable to physicists in spite of its going against the principle of simplicity is its great mathematical beauty. This is a quality which cannot be defined, any more than beauty in art can be defined, but which people who study mathematics usually have no difficulty in appreciating. View quote
Paul Dirac
When [Erwin Schrödinger] went to the Solvay conferences in Brussels, he would walk from the station to the hotel where the delegates stayed, carrying all his luggage in a rucksack and looking so like a tramp that it needed a great deal of argument at the reception desk before he could claim a room. View quote
Paul Dirac
Mathematics is the tool specially suited for dealing with abstract concepts of any kind and there is no limit to its power in this field. View quote
Paul Dirac