87 Quotes by Arthur Eddington

In the most modern theories of physics probability seems to have replaced aether as "the nominative of the verb 'to undulate'."

Asked in 1919 whether it was true that only three people in the world understood the theory of general relativity, [Eddington] allegedly replied: "Who's the third?"

Observation and theory get on best when they are mixed together, both helping one another in the pursuit of truth. It is a good rule not to put overmuch confidence in a theory until it has been confirmed by observation. I hope I shall not shock the experimental physicists too much if I add that it is also a good rule not to put overmuch confidence in the observational results that are put forward until they have been confirmed by theory.

Time is the supreme Law of nature.

The pursuit of truth in science transcends national boundaries. It takes us beyond hatred and anger and fear. It is the best of us.

We are bits of stellar matter that got cold by accident, bits of a star gone wrong.

It is reasonable to hope that in the not too distant future we shall be competent to understand so simple a thing as a star.

You cannot disturb the tiniest petal of a flower without the troubling of a distant star.

I ask you to look both ways. For the road to a knowledge of the stars leads through the atom; and important knowledge of the atom has been reached through the stars.