The pursuit of truth in science transcends national boundaries. It takes us beyond hatred and anger and fear. It is the best of us.

There is only one law of Nature-the second law of thermodynamics-which recognises a distinction between past and future more profound than the difference of plus and minus. It stands aloof from all the rest. ... It opens up a new province of knowledge, namely, the study of organisation; and it is in connection with organisation that a direction of time-flow and a distinction between doing and undoing appears for the first time.

Our model of Nature should not be like a building-a handsome structure for the populace to admire, until in the course of time some one takes away a corner stone and the edifice comes toppling down. It should be like an engine with movable parts. We need not fix the position of any one lever; that is to be adjusted from time to time as the latest observations indicate. The aim of the theorist is to know the train of wheels which the lever sets in motion-that binding of the parts which is the soul of the engine.

You cannot disturb the tiniest petal of a flower without the troubling of a distant star.

What is possible in the Cavendish Laboratory may not be too difficult in the sun.

It is impossible to trap modern physics into predicting anything with perfect determinism because it deals with probabilities from the outset.

Whatever else there may be in our nature, responsibility toward truth is one of its attributes.