Clifford Truesdell

"There is nothing that can be said by mathematical symbols and relations which cannot also be said by words. The converse, however, is false. Much that can be and is said by words cannot successfully be put into equations, because it is nonsense."

—Clifford Truesdell (1919-2000)

"This paper gives wrong solutions to trivial problems. The basic error,however, is not new."

—Clifford Truesdell (1919-2000)

"Now a mathematician has a matchless advantage over general scientists, historians, politicians, and exponents of other professions: He can be wrong. A fortiori, he can also be right. [...] A mistake made by a mathematician, even a great one, is not a ``difference of a point of view'' or ``another interpretation of the data'' or a ``dictate of a conflicting ideology'', it is a mistake."

—Clifford Truesdell (1919-2000)

"The mistakes made by a great mathematician are of two kinds: first, trivial slips that anyone can correct, and, second, titanic failures reflecting the scale of the struggle which the great mathematician waged. Failures of this latter kind are often as important as successes, for they give rise to major discoveries by other mathematicians. One error of a great mathematician has often done more for science than a hundred impeccable little theorems proved by lesser men. Since Newton was as great mathematician as ever lived, but still a mathematician, we may approach his work with the level, tactless criticism which mathematics demands."

—Clifford Truesdell (1919-2000)

"Pedantry and sectarianism aside, the aim of theoretical physics is to construct mathematical models such as to enable us, from the use of knowledge gathered in a few observations, to predict by logical processes the outcomes in many other circumstances. Any logically sound theory satisfying this condition is a good theory, whether or not it be derived from 'ultimate'' or 'fundamental'' truth. It is as ridiculous to deride continuum physics because it is not obtained from nuclear physics as it would be to reproach it with lack of foundation in the Bible."

—Clifford Truesdell (1919-2000)

"The task of the theorist is to bring order into the chaos of the phenomena of nature, to invent a language by which a class of these phenomena can be described efficiently and simply."

—Clifford Truesdell (1919-2000)

“Thermodynamics is the kingdom of deltas.”

—Clifford Truesdell (1919-2000)

"Formerly, the beginner was taught to crawl through the underbrush, never lifting his eyes to the trees; today he is often made to focus on the curvature of the universe, missing even the earth."

—Clifford Truesdell (1919-2000)

"Every physicist knows exactly what the first and the second law mean, but... no two physicists agree about them."

—Clifford Truesdell (1919-2000)