The pursuit of science has often been compared to the scaling of mountains, high and not so high. But who amongst us can hope, even in imagination, to scale the Everest and reach its summit when the sky is blue and the air is still, and in the stillness of the air survey the entire Himalayan range in the dazzling white of the snow stretching to infinity? None of us can hope for a comparable vision of nature and of the universe around us. But there is nothing mean or lowly in standing in the valley below and awaiting the sun to rise over Kinchinjunga.
Subrahmanyan ChandrasekharI am aware of the usefulness of science to society and of the benefits society derives from it.
Subrahmanyan ChandrasekharScience is a perception of the world around us. Science is a place where what you find in nature pleases you.
Subrahmanyan ChandrasekharMacroscopic objects, as we see them all around us, are governed by a variety of forces, derived from a variety of approximations to a variety of physical theories. In contrast, the only elements in the construction of black holes are our basic concepts of space and time. They are, thus, almost by definition, the most perfect macroscopic objects there are in the universe.
Subrahmanyan ChandrasekharBeauty is that to what the human mind responds at its deepest and most profound.
Subrahmanyan ChandrasekharIn some strange way, any new fact or insight that I may have found has not seemed to me as a "discovery" of mine, but rather something that had always been there and that I had chanced to pick up.
Subrahmanyan ChandrasekharOne may ask the question as to the extent to which the quest for beauty is an aim in the pursuit of science. . . . It is, indeed, an incredible fact that what the human mind, at its deepest and most profound, perceives as beautiful finds its realization in external nature. What is intelligible is also beautiful.
Subrahmanyan ChandrasekharIndeed, I would feel that an appreciation of the arts in a conscious, disciplined way might help one to do science better.
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar