87 Quotes by Arthur Eddington

In the world of physics we watch a shadowgraph performance of the drama of familiar life. The shadow of my elbow rests on the shadow table as the shadow ink flows over the shadow paper. It is all symbolic, and as a symbol the physicist leaves it. ... The frank realization that physical science is concerned with a world of shadows is one of the most significant of recent advances.

An electron is no more (and no less) hypothetical than a star. Nowadays we count electrons one by one in a Geiger counter, as we count the stars one by one on a photographic plate.

The understanding between a non-technical writer and his reader is that he shall talk more or less like a human being and not like an Act of Parliament. I take it that the aim of such books must be to convey exact thought in inexact language... he can never succeed without the co-operation of the reader.

Life would be stunted and narrow if we could feel no significance in the world around us beyond that which can be weighed and measured with the tools of the physicist or described by the metrical symbols of the mathematician.

Do not put too much confidence in experimental results until they have been confirmed by theory.

For the truth of the conclusions of physical science, observation is the supreme Court of Appeal.

It is a primitive form of thought that things exist or do not exist.

Don't believe the results of experiments until they're confirmed by theory.

What is possible in the Cavendish Laboratory may not be too difficult in the sun.