Quotes about Physics

People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

I am now convinced that theoretical physics is actual philosophy.

On one hand, Kant thought science led to the conclusion that humans are elements in a vast machine operating by the laws of physics. On the other hand, he said, to salvage morality, we must act as if we were free. And to ratify our moral standards, we must act as if God existed. And because morality makes no sense unless justice prevails in the end, we must act as if there were an afterlife.

Energy is liberated matter, and matter is energy waiting to happen.

The verbal interpretation, on the other hand, i.e. the metaphysics of quantum physics, is on far less solid ground. In fact, in more than forty years physicists have not been able to provide a clear metaphysical model.

Relativity applies to physics, not ethics.

Aristotle had discovered only half the principle of inertia—that a body at rest remains at rest unless moved by another—but not the other half—that a body in motion remains in motion unless acted on by another.

You must have carbon. Arsenic, boron, and silicon are the only other elements on which complex molecules can be based, but arsenic and boron are relatively rare and, where concentrated, poisonous to life, and silicon can hold together no more than about a hundred amino acids. Only carbon yields the chemical bonding stability and bonding complexity that life requires. Given the constraints of physics and chemistry, we now know that physical life must be carbon-based.

But in the science of physics, power means something different. Power describes how fast you use energy. For example, it takes the same amount of energy to walk across a football field as it does to run across a football field. But running is faster. Therefore, running has more power. This is the kind of power that makes things happen.

Some people skip through life. Others are dragged through it. I sometimes wonder if we are moving through time, or whether time is moving through us. Light, unlike anything else in the universe is not effected by time. Light exists outside of time.. It is still a mystery to physicists.

It seems like, if you really knew the God who understands the physics of our existence, you would operate a little more cautiously, a little more compassionately, a little less like you are the center of the universe.

If I want to understand the laws of physics I have to first believe what I read about physics. I have to have faith in what I read.