In the world of physics we watch a shadowgraph performance of the drama of familiar life. The shadow of my elbow rests on the shadow table as the shadow ink flows over the shadow paper. It is all symbolic, and as a symbol the physicist leaves it. ... The frank realisation that physical science is concerned with a world of shadows is one of the most significant of recent advances.

Events do not happen; they are just there, and we come across them.

Proof is an idol before which the mathematician tortures himself.

An ocean traveler has even more vividly the impression that the ocean is made of waves than that it is made of water.

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

The idea of a universal mind or Logos would be, I think, a fairly plausible inference from the present state of scientific theory.

It is also a good rule not to put overmuch confidence in the observational results that are put forward until they are confirmed by theory.