“To those who do not know mathematics it is difficult to get across a real feeling as to the beauty, the deepest beauty, of nature. … If you want to learn about nature, to appreciate nature, it is necessary to understand the language that she speaks in.”
Source: The Character of Physical Law (1965), chapter 2, “The Relation of Mathematics to Physics,” p. 58
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Richard Feynman 181
American theoretical physicist 1918–1988Related quotes
“If nature leads us to mathematical forms of great simplicity and beauty”
Conversation with Einstein, as quoted in Bittersweet Destiny: The Stormy Evolution of Human Behavior by Del Thiessen
Context: If nature leads us to mathematical forms of great simplicity and beauty—by forms I am referring to coherent systems of hypothesis, axioms, etc.—to forms that no one has previously encountered, we cannot help thinking that they are "true," that they reveal a genuine feature of nature... You must have felt this too: The almost frightening simplicity and wholeness of relationships which nature suddenly spreads out before us and for which none of us was in the least prepared.
“The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.”
“The deepest craving of human nature is the need to be appreciated.”
Source: Thanatopsis (1817–1821), l. 1
To the hypothetical question where outside India I would like to stay, I said:
An Interview With The Field Marshal - Apr 03, 2016, https://swarajyamag.com/from-the-archives/an-interview-with-the-field-marshal
“All mathematical laws which we find in Nature are always suspect to me, in spite of their beauty.”
As quoted in Lichtenberg : A Doctrine of Scattered Occasions (1959) by Joseph Peter Stern, p. 84
Context: All mathematical laws which we find in Nature are always suspect to me, in spite of their beauty. They give me no pleasure. They are merely auxiliaries. At close range it is all not true.
On the coronavirus and environmental crises. Cited in Pope salutes 'saints next door' in fight against coronavirus https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/08/pope-salutes-saints-next-door-fight-against-coronavirus-hyprocrisy in the Guardian. (8 April 2020)
2010s, 2020
He's got the whole world in his hands http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3663966/Hes-got-the-whole-world-in-his-hands.html, The Telegraph (24 March 2007)