Brian Greene > Quotes

“Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding...”
― Brian Greene

“When kids look up to great scientists the way they do to great musicians and actors, civilization will jump to the next level”
― Brian Greene

“The boldness of asking deep questions may require unforeseen flexibility if we are to accept the answers.”
― Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory

“Cosmology is among the oldest subjects to captivate our species. And it’s no wonder. We’re storytellers, and what could be more grand than the story of creation?”
― Brian Greene, The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality

“Understanding requires insight. Insight must be anchored.”
― Brian Greene, The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality

“Physicists have come to realize that mathematics, when used with sufficient care, is a proven pathway to truth.”
― Brian Greene, The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality

“Sometimes attaining the deepest familiarity with a question is our best substitute for actually having the answer.”
― Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe

“I have long thought that anyone who does not regularly - or ever - gaze up and see the wonder and glory of a dark night sky filled with countless stars loses a sense of their fundamental connectedness to the universe”
― Brian Greene

“...things are the way they are in our universe because if they weren't, we wouldn't be here to notice.”
― Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory

“All you are is a bag of particles acting out the laws of physics. That to me is pretty clear.”
― Brian Greene

“Free will is the sensation of making a choice. The sensation is real, but the choice seems illusory. Laws of physics determine the future.”
― Brian Greene

“...quantum mechanics—the physics of our world—requires that you hold such pedestrian complaints in abeyance.”
― Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory

“We all love a good story. We all love a tantalizing mystery. We all love the underdog pressing onward against seemingly insurmountable odds. We all, in one form or another, are trying to make sense of the world around us. And all of these elements lie at the core of modern physics. The story is among the grandest -- the unfolding of the entire universe; the mystery is among the toughest -- finding out how the cosmos came to be; the odds are among the most daunting -- bipeds, newly arrived by cosmic time scales trying to reveal the secrets of the ages; and the quest is among the deepest -- the search for fundamental laws to explain all we see and beyond, from the tiniest particles to the most distant galaxies.”
― Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory

“Assessing existence while failing to embrace the insights of modern physics would be like wrestling in the dark with an unknown opponent.”
― Brian Greene

“You should never be surprised by or feel the need to explain why any physical system is in a high entropy state.”
― Brian Greene, The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality

“Experience informs intuition. But it does more than that: Experience sets the frame within which we analyze and interpret what we perceive. You would no doubt expect, for instance, that the "wild child" raised by a pack of wolves would interpret the world from a perspective that differs substantially from your own. Even less extreme comparisons, such as those between people raised in very different cultural traditions, serve to underscore the degree to which our experiences determine our interpretive mindset.”
― Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory

“But, as Einstein once said, “For we convinced physicists, the distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion, however persistent.”5”
― Brian Greene, The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality

“As Feynman once wrote, "[Quantum mechanics] describes nature as absurd from the point of view of common sense. And it fully agrees with experiment. So I hope you can accept nature as She is—absurd.”
― Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe

“Gravity is matter’s sugar daddy.”
― Brian Greene

“When you realize that quantum mechanics underlies all physical processes, from the fusing of atoms in the sun to the neural firings that constitutes the stuff of thought, the far-reaching implications of the proposal become apparent. It says that there’s no such thing as a road untraveled. Yet each such road—each reality—is hidden from all others.”
― Brian Greene, The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos

“... things are the way they are in our universe because if they Weren't, we would not be here to notice.”
― Brian Greene

“For string theory to make sense, the universe should have nine spacial dimensions and one time dimension, for a total of ten dimensions.”
― Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory

“For three decades, Einstein sought a unified theory of physics, one that would interweave all of nature's forces and material constituents within a single theoretical tapestry. He failed. Now, at the dawn of the new millennium, proponents of string theory claim that the threads of this elusive unified tapestry finally have been revealed. String theory has the potential to show that all of the wondrous happenings in the universe—from the frantic dance of subatomic quarks to the stately waltz of orbiting binary stars, from the primordial fireball of the big bang to the majestic swirl of heavenly galaxies—are reflections of one grand physical principle, one master equation.”
― Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe

“We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.”
― Brian Greene, Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe

“If there is a lot of matter, gravity will cause space to curve back on itself, yielding the spherical shape. If there is little matter, space is free to flare outward in the Pringles shape. And if there is just the right amount of matter, space will have zero curvature.*”
― Brian Greene, The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos

“Planet earth, which Carl Sagan described as a “mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam,” is an evanescent bloom in an exquisite cosmos that will ultimately be
barren. Motes of dust, nearby or distant, dance on sunbeams for merely a moment.”
― Brian Greene, Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe

“There is but one truly philosophical problem, and that is suicide,” the text began. I winced. “Whether or not the world has three dimensions or the mind nine or twelve categories,” it continued, “comes afterward”; such questions, the text explained, were part of the game humanity played, but they deserved attention only after the one true issue had been settled. The book was The Myth of Sisyphus and was written by the Algerian-born philosopher and Nobel laureate Albert Camus. After a moment, the iciness of his words melted under the light of comprehension. Yes, of course, I thought. You can ponder this or analyze that till the cows come home, but the real question is whether all your ponderings and analyses will convince you that life is worth living. That’s what it all comes down to. Everything else is detail.”
― Brian Greene, The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality

“The world of the everyday suddenly seemed nothing but an inverted magic act, lulling its audience into believing in the usual, familiar conceptions of space and time, while the astonishing truth of quantum reality lay carefully guarded by nature's sleights of hand.”
― Brian Greene , The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality

“A watch worn by a particle of light would not tick at all. Light realizes the dreams of Ponce de Leon and the cosmetics industry: it doesn't age.”
― Brian Greene

“comparing infinities is a treacherous business”
― Brian Greene