31 Quotes by Enrico Fermi

When asked what characteristics Nobel prize winning physicists had in common ؛ I cannot think of a single one, not even intelligence

I remember my friend Johnny von Neumann used to say, 'with four parameters I can fit an elephant and with five I can make him wiggle his trunk.'

Some people stick with the traditional, feeling struck by the epic beauty or blown away by the insane scale of the universe. Personally, I go for the old "existential meltdown followed by acting weird for the next half hour. But everyone feels something.

Ignorance is never better than knowledge

Never underestimate the joy people derive from hearing something they already know.

It is not good to try to stop knowledge from going forward. Ignorance is never better than knowledge.

Experimental confirmation of a prediction is merely a measurement. An experiment disproving a prediction is a discovery.

There are two possible outcomes: if the result confirms the hypothesis, then you’ve made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you’ve made a discovery.

I hope it won’t take long.