The British philosopher Bertrand Russell said that philosophy went downhill after Democritus and did not recover until the Renaissance.
Leon M. LedermanWe hope to explain the entire universe in a single, simple formula that you can wear on your T-shirt.
Leon M. LedermanThe history of atomism is one of reductionism – the effort to reduce all the operations of nature to a small number of laws governing a small number of primordial objects.
Leon M. LedermanHe [Democritus] is probably best known for two of the most scientifically intuitive quotes ever uttered by an ancient: 'Nothing exists except atoms and space, everything else is opinion'.
Leon M. LedermanThe physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God.
Leon M. LedermanThe aether: Invented by Isaac Newton, reinvented by James Clerk Maxwell. This is the stuff that fills up the empty space of the universe. Discredited and discarded by Einstein, the aether is now making a Nixonian comeback. It's really the vacuum, but burdened by theoretical, ghostly particles.
Leon M. Lederman