The natural laws formulated mathematically in quantum theory no longer deal with the elemental particles themselves but with our knowledge of them.
Heisenberg
The main advice ... is to not feel behind because you probably don't even know where you're going, anyway.
- https://youtu.be/Js4NiTFq9Pw?si=rbrDSVmj-bO_jY1L author of the 2019 book "Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World."
Here is a story about a visit by Niels Bohr to Landau’s Moscow Institute. Bohr was asked by a journalist how he succeeded in creating such a vibrant atmosphere in Copenhagen. He replied “I guess the thing is, I’ve never been embarrassed to admit to my students that I’m a fool”. This was translated by Lifshitz as: “I guess the thing is, I’ve never been embarrassed to admit to my students that they’re fools”. According to Kapista, the translation was no mistake: it simply reflected the difference between Landau’s school and Bohr’s.
- From David Tong's lecture Statistical Mechanics
The only reason I ever started was that I didn't know how hard it would be. but that's what makes it fun
-Linus Torvals on Linux at https://youtu.be/OM_8UOPFpqE?si=em-NKvHGn-C3nhWF
Wolfram is trying to apply his experience with digital computer programs to the laws of nature... So might a carpenter, looking at the moon, suppose that it is made of wood.
Steven Weinber review on Wolfram's "a new kind of science"
Predictions are very difficult especially about the future. Also I know a lot of economic forecasters. Forecasters humble a lot with much to be humble about.
- Fed Chair J. H. Powel https://youtu.be/8e2hXk-0Hnc?si=7VDjG-Np4XDexzIL at 16:55
There is a joke in science. In physics your garner power by telling people what you know, whereas in engineering, you garner people by preventing them from knowing what you know.
Robert Laughlin talk at MIT youtube
The importance of stupidity in scientific research , Martin A. Schwartz
Four golden lessons by Steven Weinberg
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.
Feynman
A method is more important than a discovery, since the right method will lead to new and even more important discoveries.
Landau
Elegance should be left to shoemakers and tailors
Ludwig Boltzmann
There is another remark he once made that I consider even more characteristic. We were on a walk and somehow began to talk about space. I had just read Weyl's book Space, Time and Matter, and under its influence was proud to declare that space was simply the field of linear oper-ations. "Nonsense," said Heisenberg, "space is blue and birds fly through it."
Heisenberg and the early days of quantum mechanics by Felix Bloch