“Vibrating strings in 10 dimensions is just a weird fact… An explanation of that weird fact would tell you why there are 10 dimensions in the first place.”

as quoted by K.C. Cole, "A Theory of Everything" New York Times Magazine (1987) Oct.18

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Edward Witten20

American theoretical physicist 1951

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“In a mathematical sense, space is manifoldness, or combination of numbers. Physical space is known as the 3-dimension system. There is the 4-dimension system, there is the 10-dimension system.”

Charles Proteus Steinmetz (1865–1923) Mathematician and electrical engineer

New York Times interview (1911)

“The idea of 10 dimensions might sound exciting, but they would cause real problems if you forget where you parked your car.”

Stephen Hawking book The Grand Design

Source: The Grand Design

“It is reported so. But men are divided in opinion as to the facts. And even granting the facts, they explain them in different ways. And in any case, however great may be the number of different explanations, no one has adopted or suggested the theory of a Fourth Dimension.”

Edwin Abbott Abbott book Flatland

Source: Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884), PART II: OTHER WORLDS, Chapter 19. How, Though the Sphere Showed Me Other Mysteries of Spaceland, I Still Desired More; and What Came of It
Context: p>O, my Lord, my Lord, behold, I cast myself in faith upon conjecture, not knowing the facts; and I appeal to your Lordship to confirm or deny my logical anticipations. If I am wrong, I yield, and will no longer demand a fourth Dimension; but, if I am right, my Lord will listen to reason.I ask therefore, is it, or is it not, the fact, that ere now your countrymen also have witnessed the descent of Beings of a higher order than their own, entering closed rooms, even as your Lordship entered mine, without the opening of doors or windows, and appearing and vanishing at will? On the reply to this question I am ready to stake everything. Deny it, and I am henceforth silent. Only vouchsafe an answer.SPHERE. (AFTER A PAUSE). It is reported so. But men are divided in opinion as to the facts. And even granting the facts, they explain them in different ways. And in any case, however great may be the number of different explanations, no one has adopted or suggested the theory of a Fourth Dimension.Therefore, pray have done with this trifling, and let us return to business.</p

“The very fact that a Line is visible implies that it possesses yet another Dimension.”

Edwin Abbott Abbott book Flatland

Source: Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884), PART II: OTHER WORLDS, Chapter 16. How the Stranger Vainly Endeavoured to Reveal to Me in Words the Mysteries of Spaceland

“Listen intently to a voice singing without words. It may charm you into crying, force you to dance, fill you with rage, or make you jump for joy. You can't tell where the music ends and the emotions begin, for the whole thing is a kind of music—the voice playing on your nerves as the breath plays on a flute. All experience is just that, except that its music has many more dimensions than sound. It vibrates in the dimensions of sight, touch, taste, and smell, and in the intellectual dimension of symbols and words—all evoking and playing upon each other.”

Alan Watts (1915–1973) British philosopher, writer and speaker

Source: The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are (1966), p. 95

“You have this ability to find beauty in weird places.”

Kamila Shamsie (1973) Pakistani writer

Source: Kartography

“Why is space-time doomed? There are many reasons, among which: In string theory we can change the dimension of space-time by changing the strength of the string force. Thus, the so-called II-A string theory, which semi-classically describes closed strings moving in ten-dimensional flat space for very weak coupling is dual for strong coupling to a theory, called M-theory, that at low energies is described by eleven-dimensional supergravity. By increasing the string coupling we can grow an extra dimension. How can the spatial continuum be fundamental if the number of spatial dimensions can be so changed?”

David Gross (1941) American particle physicist and string theorist

"Einstein and the Search for Unification", p. 11 https://books.google.com/books?id=rEaUIxukvy4C&pg=PA11, in The legacy of Albert Einstein: a collection of essays in celebration of the year of physics (2007)

“The fact that life evolved out of nearly nothing, some 10 billion years after the universe evolved out of literally nothing, is a fact so staggering that I would be mad to attempt words to do it justice.”

Richard Dawkins (1941) English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author

"From tail to tale on the path of pilgrims in life" http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=374772005, The Scotsman ()

“I am weird, you are weird. Everyone in this world is weird. One day two people come together in mutual weirdness and fall in love.”

Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books

“It [Vatican II] does not look upon the ‘religious’ as one dimension among other dimensions of human existence. The religious dimension intersects with other dimensions. That is why the Council could speak of ‘the supremely human character’ of the Church’s religious mission.”

Kurien Kunnumpuram (1931–2018) Indian theologian

Kunnumpuram, K. (2005) Towards a New Humanity: Reflections on the Church's Mission in India Today. Mumbai: St Pauls
On the Church

“Vibrating strings in 10 dimensions is just a weird fact… An explanation of that weird fact would tell you why there are 10 dimensions in the first place.”

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Edward Witten20

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