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Quotes by Physicist
"Had we really succeeded therefore in altering the period of vibration, which Maxwell, as I have just noted, held to be impossible? Or was there some disturbing circumstances from one or more factors which distorted the result?"
"I count myself fortunate to be able to contribute to this work; and the great interest which the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has shown in my work and the recognition that it has paid to my past successes, convince me that I am not on the wrong track."
"I should point out, however, that at first some difficulty was experienced in observing the phenomena predicted by the theory, owing to the extreme smallness of the variations in the period of oscillation."
"It was not simply out of a spirit of contradiction that I exposed a light source to magnetic forces. The idea came to me during an investigation of the effect discovered by Kerr on light reflected by magnetic mirrors."
"Nature gives us all, including Prof. Lorentz, surprises. It was very quickly found that there are many exceptions to the rule of splitting of the lines only into triplets."
"Moreover, photography has made it possible to fix these images and now provides us with a permanent record of each observed spectrum, which can be measured out at any time."
"On the basis of Lorentz's theory, if we limit ourselves to a single spectral line, it suffices to assume that each atom (or molecule) contains a single moving electron."
"In the absence of a magnetic field the period of all these oscillations is the same. But as soon as the electron is exposed to the effect of a magnetic field, its motion changes."
"According to well-known electrodynamic laws, an electron moving in a magnetic field is acted upon by a force which runs perpendicular to the direction of motion of the electron and to the direction of the magnetic field, and whose magnitude is easily determined."
"The question was heatedly debated of how much Western culture should be brought into China."
"In the final analysis, the incident is seen as originating from an emotional expression of the frustration and anger of the proud people of China who had been subject to ever increasing oppression from without and decadent corruption from within."
"I should like to say that I am as proud of my Chinese heritage and background as I am devoted to modern science, a part of human civilization of Western origin, to which I have dedicated and I shall continue to dedicate my work."
"I was later to receive an excellent first two years' graduate education in the same University and then again was able to pursue my studies in the U.S. on a fellowship from the aforementioned fund."
"Physics is becoming so unbelievably complex that it is taking longer and longer to train a physicist. It is taking so long, in fact, to train a physicist to the place where he understands the nature of physical problems that he is already too old to solve them."
"It is nice to know that the computer understands the problem. But I would like to understand it too."
"The simplicities of natural laws arise through the complexities of the language we use for their expression."
"It is my opinion that everything must be based on a simple idea. And it is my opinion that this idea, once we have finally discovered it, will be so compelling, so beautiful, that we will say to one another, yes, how could it have been any different."
"In order to more fully understand this reality, we must take into account other dimensions of a broader reality."
"Behind it all is surely an idea so simple, so beautiful, that when we grasp it - in a decade, a century, or a millennium - we will all say to each other, how could it have been otherwise? How could we have been so stupid?"
"Knowledge once gained casts a light beyond its own immediate boundaries."
"Whether the ice caps melt, or expand - whatever happens - the anthropogenic global warming theorists claim it confirms their theory. A perfect example of a pseudo-science like astrology."
"The science of today is the technology of tomorrow."
"Secrecy, once accepted, becomes an addiction."
"No endeavor that is worthwhile is simple in prospect; if it is right, it will be simple in retrospect."
"My experience has been in a short 77 years that in the end when you fight for a desperate cause and have good reasons to fight, you usually win."
"Life improves slowly and goes wrong fast, and only catastrophe is clearly visible."
"I tried to contribute to the defeat of the Soviets. If I contributed 1%, it is 1% of something enormous."
"Had we not pursued the hydrogen bomb, there is a very real threat that we would now all be speaking Russian. I have no regrets."
Now,
"A fact is a simple statement that everyone believes. It is innocent, unless found guilty. A hypothesis is a novel suggestion that no one wants to believe. It is guilty, until found effective."
Fact,
"The main purpose of science is simplicity and as we understand more things, everything is becoming simpler."
"I feel I learned as much from fellow students as from the professors."
"I had no new ideas on the physics we might learn, and I could not compete with the younger generation."
"I studied chemical engineering. I was a good student, but these were the hard times of the depression, my scholarship came to an end, and it was necessary to work to supplement the family income."
"I survived only a year in Berkeley, partly because I declined to sign the anticommunist loyalty oath."
"In 1934, the American Jewish charities offered to find homes for 300 German refugee children. We were on the SS Washington, bound for New York, Christmas 1934."
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