“The quest of the absolute leads into the four-dimensional world.”

—  Arthur Stanley Eddington

Source: The Nature of the Physical World (1928), Ch. 2 Relativity

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The quest of the absolute leads into the four-dimensional world." by Arthur Stanley Eddington?
Arthur Stanley Eddington photo
Arthur Stanley Eddington 105
British astrophysicist 1882–1944

Related quotes

Marcel Duchamp photo

“If a shadow is a two-dimensional projection of the three-dimensional world, then the three-dimensional world as we know it is the projection of the four-dimensional Universe.”

Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) French painter and sculptor
Charlie Sheen photo

“I'm on a quest to claim absolute victory on every front.”

Charlie Sheen (1965) American film and television actor

Quote summary in The Los Angeles Times (2011)

Willem de Sitter photo

“The triangles that we can measure are not large enough… to detect the curvature. Fortunately, however, we are, in a way, able to communicate with the fourth dimension. The theory of relativity has given us an insight into the structure of the real universe: …a four-dimensional structure. The study of the way in which the three space-dimensions are interwoven with the time-dimension affords a kind of outside point of view of the three-dimensional space… from this outside point of view we might be able to perceive the curvature of the three-dimensional world.”

Willem de Sitter (1872–1934) Dutch cosmologist

Kosmos (1932)

“Scientology and all the other cults are one-dimensional, and we live in a three-dimensional world. Cults are as dangerous as drugs. They commit the highest crime: the rape of the soul.”

Ronald DeWolf (1934–1991) American critic of Scientology

Interview in Penthouse (June 1983)
Context: I don't think that anyone should think for you. And that's exactly what cults do. All cults, including Scientology, say, "I am your mind, I am your brain. I've done all the work for you, I've laid the path open for you. All you have to do is turn your mind off and walk down the path I have created." Well, I have learned that there's great strength in diversity, that a clamorous discussion or debate is very healthy and should be encouraged. That's why I like our political setup in the United States: simply because you can fight and argue and jump up and down and shout and scream and have all kinds of viewpoints, regardless of how wrongheaded or ridiculous they might be. People here don't have to give up their right to perceive things the way they believe. Scientology and all the other cults are one-dimensional, and we live in a three-dimensional world. Cults are as dangerous as drugs. They commit the highest crime: the rape of the soul.

“It is true that the successful quest for wisdom might lead to the result that wisdom is not the one thing needful. But this result would owe its relevance to the fact that it is the result of the quest for wisdom: the very disavowal of reason must be reasonable disavowal.”

Leo Strauss (1899–1973) Classical philosophy specialist and father of neoconservativism

Source: Natural Right and History (1953), p. 36

“In a lifetime filled with despicable statements and support for history’s worst regimes, MIT professor Noam Chomsky has finally hit absolute bottom as he visits the leader of the Hizballah terror gang, calls the United States a “leading terrorist state,” and supports Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons—to deter “Israeli aggression.””

Charles Foster Johnson (1953) American musician

May 11, 2006 http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=20501_Noam_Chomsky_Supports_Hizballah_Iran&only

Mike Pence photo

“We cannot have four more years apologizing to [America's] enemies and abandoning our friends. America needs to be strong for the world to be safe, and on the world stage, Donald Trump will lead from strength.”

Mike Pence (1959) 48th Vice President of the United States

Excerpt from his vice presidential acceptance speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention — https://fox59.com/2016/07/21/we-like-mike-full-transcript-of-gov-pences-vp-acceptance-speech/ (July 21, 2016)
Trump/Pence 2016 Presidential Campaign

Willem de Sitter photo

“The sequence of different positions of the same particle at different times forms a one-dimensional continuum in the four-dimensional space-time, which is called the world-line of the particle. All that physical experiments or observations can teach us refers to intersections of world-lines of different material particles, light-pulsations, etc., and how the course of the world-line is between these points of intersection is entirely irrelevant and outside the domain of physics. The system of intersecting world-lines can thus be twisted about at will, so long as no points of intersection are destroyed or created, and their order is not changed. It follows that the equations expressing the physical laws must be invariant for arbitrary transformations.”

Willem de Sitter (1872–1934) Dutch cosmologist

Kosmos (1932), Above is Beginning Quote of the Last Chapter: Relativity and Modern Theories of the Universe -->

Max Beckmann photo

“One thing is sure – we have to transform the three-dimensional world of objects into the two-dimensional world of the canvas... To transform three into two dimensions is for me an experience full of magic in which I glimpse for a moment that fourth dimension which my whole being is seeking.”

Max Beckmann (1884–1950) German painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor and writer

Source: 1930s, On my Painting (1938), p. 16

Related topics