“Not only does God play dice but… he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen.”

Last update Oct. 1, 2023. History

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Stephen Hawking 122
British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author 1942–2018

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Stephen Hawking photo

“So Einstein was wrong when he said, "God does not play dice." Consideration of black holes suggests, not only that God does play dice, but that he sometimes confuses us by throwing them where they can't be seen.”

During the same 1994 exchange with Penrose as the previous quote, transcribed in The Nature of Space and Time (1996) by Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose, p. 26 http://books.google.com/books?id=LstaQTXP65cC&lpg=PA26&dq=hawking%20%22where%20they%20can't%20be%20seen%22&pg=PA26#v=onepage&q=&f=false and also in "The Nature of Space and Time" (online text) http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9409195
Unsourced variants: Not only does God play dice with the Universe; he sometimes casts them where they can't be seen.
Not only does God play dice, but... he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen.
Variant: So Einstein was wrong when he said "God does not play dice". Consideration of black holes suggests, not only that God does play dice, but that He sometimes confuses us by throwing them where they can't be seen.

Stanisław Lem photo

“Not only does God play dice with the world—He does not let us see what He has rolled.”

Imaginary Magnitude" (1981), "Lecture XLIII", tr. Marc E. Heine (1984)

Albert Einstein photo

“God does not play dice with the universe.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Source: The Born-Einstein Letters 1916-55

Albert Einstein photo

“I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Letter to Max Born (4 December 1926); The Born-Einstein Letters (translated by Irene Born) (Walker and Company, New York, 1971) <!-- p. 90 --> .
Einstein himself used variants of this quote at other times. For example, in a 1943 conversation with William Hermanns recorded in Hermanns' book Einstein and the Poet, Einstein said: "As I have said so many times, God doesn't play dice with the world." ( p. 58 http://books.google.com/books?id=QXCyjj6T5ZUC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA58#v=onepage&q&f=false)
1920s
Context: Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the "old one." I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice.

Albert Einstein photo

“It seems hard to sneak a look at God's cards. But that He plays dice and uses "telepathic" methods… is something that I cannot believe for a single moment.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Letter to Cornel Lanczos (21 March 1942), p. 68
Attributed in posthumous publications, Albert Einstein: The Human Side (1979)

Paulo Coelho photo

“The gods throw the dice, and they don't ask whether we want to be in the game or not.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

By The River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept (1994)
Context: The gods throw the dice, and they don't ask whether we want to be in the game or not. They don't care if when you go, you leave behind a lover, a home, a career, or a dream. The gods don't care whether you have it all, whether it seems that your every desire can be met through hard work and persistence. The gods don't want to know about your plans and your hopes. Somewhere they're throwing the dice — and you are chosen. From then on, winning or losing is only a question of luck.
The gods throw the dice, freeing love from its cage. And love can create or destroy — depending on the direction of the wind when it is set free.

Federico Fellini photo

“God may not play dice but he enjoys a good round of Trivial Pursuit every now and again.”

Federico Fellini (1920–1993) Italian filmmaker

"God"
I'm a Born Liar (2003)

Paul Erdős photo

“God may not play dice with the universe, but something strange is going on with the prime numbers.”

Paul Erdős (1913–1996) Hungarian mathematician and freelancer

Referencing Albert Einstein's famous remark that "God does not play dice with the universe", this is attributed to Erdős in "Mathematics : Homage to an Itinerant Master" by D. Mackenzie, in Science 275:759 (1997), but has also been stated to be a comment originating in a talk given by Carl Pomerance on the Erdős-Kac theorem, in San Diego in January 1997, a few months after Erdős's death. Confirmation of this by Pomerance is reported in a statement posted to the School of Engineering, Computer Science & Mathematics, University of Exeter http://empslocal.ex.ac.uk/people/staff/mrwatkin//kac-pomerance.txt, where he states it was a paraphrase of something he imagined Erdős and Mark Kac might have said, and presented in a slide-show, which subsequently became reported in a newspaper as a genuine quote of Erdős the next day. In his slide show he had them both reply to Einstein's assertion: "Maybe so, but something is going on with the primes."
Misattributed

“In the beginning and the end, it’s all a crapshoot. The Cosmic Mind does play dice. Loves to gamble, in fact.”

Source: Summer of Love (1994), Chapter 2 “Do You Believe in Magic?” (p. 35)

Peter Greenaway photo

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