Whether in the intellectual pursuits of science or in the mystical pursuits of the spirit, the light beckons ahead, and the purpose surging in our nature responds.
Arthur EddingtonRead
We have found a strange footprint on the shores of the unknown.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the idea of discovering new and mysterious aspects of existence through scientific exploration.
Arthur Eddington's quote emphasizes the excitement and curiosity that comes with scientific discovery, highlighting the notion that each new finding reveals more about the universe and our place within it. The 'strange footprint' symbolizes the unknown territories in science that provoke further investigation and understanding.
Themes
DiscoveryScienceCuriosityUnknownExploration
In practice
Example use cases
A scientist may quote this during a lecture on the importance of exploration in their field.
More from Arthur Eddington
All quotes βThe physical world is entirely abstract and without actuality apart from its linkage to consciousness.
Arthur EddingtonRead
It is one thing for the human mind to extract from the phenomena of nature the laws which it has itself put into them; it may be a far harder thing to extract laws over which it has no control. It is even possible that laws which have not their origin in the mind may be irrational, and we can never succeed in formulating them.
Arthur EddingtonRead
Whatever else there may be in our nature, responsibility toward truth is one of its attributes.
Arthur EddingtonRead
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.
Arthur EddingtonRead
So far as physics is concerned, time's arrow is a property of entropy alone.
Arthur EddingtonRead
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There is for me powerful evidence that there is something going on behind it all. . . It seems as though somebody has fine tuned nature's numbers to make the Universe. . . The impression of design is overwhelming.
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Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's, but apples did not suspend themselves in mid-air, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from apelike ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered.
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The latest authors, like the most ancient, strove to subordinate the phenomena of nature to the laws of mathematics.
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We must never make experiments to confirm our ideas, but simply to control them.
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