"It seems to be one of the fundamental features of nature that fundamental physical laws are described in terms of a mathematical theory of great beauty and power, needing quite a high standard of mathematics for one to understand it. You may wonder: Why is nature constructed along these lines? One can only answer that our present knowledge seems to show that nature is so constructed. We simply have to accept it. One could perhaps describe the situation by saying that God is a mathematician of a very high order, and He used very advanced mathematics in constructing the universe. Our feeble attempts at mathematics enable us to understand a bit of the universe, and as we proceed to develop higher and higher mathematics we can hope to understand the universe better."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
University of Cambridge facultyAgnosticsEngineers from EnglandMathematicians from EnglandPhysicists from England
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Dirac
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Related Quotes
"I don't suppose that applies so much to other physicists; I think it’s a peculiarity of myself that I like to play ab…"
"If there is no complete agreement between the results of one's work and the experiment, one should not allow oneself …"
"If we are honest — and scientists have to be — we must admit that religion is a jumble of false assertions, with no b…"
"The underlying physical laws necessary for the mathematical theory of a large part of physics and the whole of chemis…"
"At the beginning of time the laws of Nature were probably very different from what they are now. Thus we should consi…"
"One possibility in this direction is to regard, classically, an electron as the end of a single Faraday line of force…"
"In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew b…"
"With my assumption... life need never end. There is no decisive argument for deciding between [certain] assumptions. …"
"It was a good description to say that it was a game, a very interesting game one could play. Whenever one solved one …"
"The measure of greatness in a scientific idea is the extent to which it stimulates thought and opens up new lines of …"