What a deep faith in the rationality of the structure of the world and what a longing to understand even a small glimpse of the reason revealed in the world there must have been in Kepler and Newton to enable them to unravel the mechanism of the heavens in long years of lonely work!
Interpretation
The quote reflects the profound faith and desire for understanding that drove scientists like Kepler and Newton in their pursuit of knowledge about the universe.
Albert Einstein's quote highlights the deep faith that figures like Kepler and Newton had in the rational nature of the cosmos, as well as their insatiable desire to comprehend its complexities. Their relentless dedication to uncovering the mechanisms governing the heavens, amidst solitude and hardship, showcases the human spirit's quest for knowledge and the impact of intellectual curiosity on scientific advancement.
In practice
In a speech about scientific perseverance, you might quote Einstein to inspire future generations of scientists.
I cannot then believe in this concept of an anthropomorphic God who has the powers of interfering with these natural laws. As I said before, the most beautiful and most profound religious emotion that we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. And this mysticality is the power of all true science.
If I would follow your advice and Jesus could perceive it, he, as a Jewish teacher, surely would not approve of such behavior.
I want to know all Gods thoughts; all the rest are just details.
In the middle of adversity there is great opportunity.
I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war fought with the atomic bomb. Perhaps two-thirds of the people of the earth will be killed.
To me the worst thing seems to be a school principally to work with methods of fear, force and artificial authority. Such treatment destroys the sound sentiments, the sincerity and the self-confidence of pupils and produces a subservient subject.
I was always interested in figuring things out. I'd do experiments, like combining things I found around the house to see what would happen if I put them together.
At the last dim horizon, we search among ghostly errors of observations for landmarks that are scarcely more substantial. The search will continue. The urge is older than history. It is not satisfied and it will not be oppressed.
A page from a journal of modern experimental physics will be as mysterious to the uninitiated as a Tibetan mandala. Both are records of enquiries into the nature of the universe.
The greatest of all the accomplishments of 20th century science has been the discovery of human ignorance
I believe all complicated phenomena can be explained by simpler scientific principles.
In real time, the universe has a beginning and an end at singularities that form a boundary to space-time and at which the laws of science break down.
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