59 Quotes by Edward Witten

Away from the safety of your home, the universe was not made for your convenience.

String theory is an attempt at a deeper description of nature by thinking of an elementary particle not as a little point but as a little loop of vibrating string.

The hardest part of research is always to find a question that’s big enough that it’s worth answering, but little enough that you actually can answer it.

We have one real candidate for changing the rules; this is string theory. In string theory the one-dimensional trajectory of a particle in spacetime is replaced by a two-dimensional orbit of a string. Such strings can be of any size, but under ordinary circumstances they are quite tiny, ... a value determined by comparing the predictions of the theory for Newton's constant and the fine structure constant to experimental values.

I just think too many nice things have happened in string theory for it to be all wrong. Humans do not understand it very well, but I just dont believe there is a big cosmic conspiracy that created this incredible thing that has nothing to do with the real world.

I don't care about movies. I tend to play badminton once a week.

There was a long history of speculation that in quantum gravity, unlike Einstein's classical theory, it might be possible for the topology of spacetime to change.

I have a tendency, more than most other physicists, to try to figure out everything all at once, before I publish. And even to try to figure out everything in my head, without pencil and paper.

One of the basic things about a string is that it can vibrate in many different shapes or forms, which gives music its beauty.