Paul Dirac Quotes

I consider that I understand an equation when I can predict the properties of its solutions, without actually solving it.

A theory with mathematical beauty is more likely to be correct than an ugly one that fits some experimental data.

God used beautiful mathematics in creating the world.

It seems that if one is working from the point of view of getting beauty in one's equations, and if one has really a sound insight, one is on a sure line of progress.

Living is worthwhile if one can contribute in some small way to this endless chain of progress.

If there is a God, he's a great mathematician.

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.

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

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.

A physical law must possess mathematical beauty.

Scientific progress is measured in units of courage, not intelligence.

The aim of science is to make difficult things understandable in a simpler way; the aim of poetry is to state simple things in an incomprehensible way. The two are incompatible.

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.

Hopes are always accompanied by fears, and, in scientific research, the fears are liable to become dominant.

There are always more people who prefer to speak than to listen.

A great deal of my work is just playing with equations and seeing what they give.

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.

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.

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.

There is in my opinion a great similarity between the problems provided by the mysterious behavior of the atom and those provided by the present economic paradoxes confronting the world.

The methods of theoretical physics should be applicable to all those branches of thought in which the essential features are expressible with numbers.

Theoretical physicists accept the need for mathematical beauty as an act of faith... For example, the main reason why the theory of relativity is so universally accepted is its mathematical beauty.

A book on the new physics, if not purely descriptive of experimental work, must essentially be mathematical.

Quantum mechanics has explained all of chemistry and most of physics.

I admired Bohr very much. We had long talks together, long talks in which Bohr did practically all the talking.

I think it is the general rule that the originator of a new idea is not the most suitable person to develop it, because his fears of something going wrong are really too strong... At age 69.

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's the exact opposite.