Albert Einstein book The Evolution of Physics
The Evolution of Physics (1938) (co-written with Leopold Infeld)
1930s
[Martinus Veltman, Facts and mysteries in elementary particle physics, World Scientific, 2003, 981238149X, 15, https://books.google.com/books?id=CNCHDIobj0IC&pg=PA15]
Albert Einstein book The Evolution of Physics
The Evolution of Physics (1938) (co-written with Leopold Infeld)
1930s
“This is great stuff, but does it have to be so complicated?”
Elliott Organick (1925–1985) American computer scientist
Often remarked when hearing about new technological advances; quoted in Communications of the ACM http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=6325, pg. 231.
George Pólya (1887–1985) Hungarian mathematician
[Jon Fripp, Michael Fripp, Deborah Fripp, Speaking of Science: Notable Quotes on Science, Engineering, and the Environment, https://books.google.com/books?id=44ihCUS1XQMC&pg=PA45, 2000, Newnes, 978-1-878707-51-2, 45]
Hermann Weyl (1885–1955) German mathematician
From the Author's Preface to First Edition (1918)
Space—Time—Matter (1952)
Context: It was my wish to present this great subject as an illustration of the itermingling of philosophical, mathematical, and physical thought, a study which is dear to my heart. This could be done only by building up the theory systematically from the foundations, and by restricting attention throughout to the principles. But I have not been able to satisfy these self-imposed requirements: the mathematician predominates at the expense of the philosopher.
“Contrary to popular opinion, mathematics is about simplifying life, not complicating it.”
Benoît Mandelbrot (1924–2010) Polish-born, French and American mathematician
Source: The (Mis)Behavior of Markets (2004, 2008), Ch. 7, p. 125
Context: Contrary to popular opinion, mathematics is about simplifying life, not complicating it. A child learns a bag of candies can be shared fairly by counting them out: That is numeracy. She abstracts that notion to dividing a candy bar into equal pieces: arithmetic. Then, she learns how to calculate how much cocoa and sugar she will need to make enough chocolate for fifteen friends: algebra.
Paul Dirac (1902–1984) theoretical physicist
The Evolution of the Physicist's Picture of Nature (1963)
Context: 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.
Nick Herbert (1936) American physicist
Source: Quantum Reality - Beyond The New Physics, Chapter 1, The Quest For Reality, p. 2
“Physics is to mathematics what sex is to masturbation.”
Richard Feynman (1918–1988) American theoretical physicist
quoted in Lawrence M. Krauss, Fear of Physics: A Guide for the Perplexed (1993), p. 27
David Hilbert (1862–1943) German prominent mathematician
"Axiomatic Thought" (1918), printed in From Kant to Hilbert, Vol. 2 by William Bragg Ewald