🏅Nobel Lectures (1940-1949)

"We all know that chance, fortune, fate or destiny - call it what you will - has played a considerable part in many of the great discoveries in science. We do not know how many, for all scientists who have hit on something new have not disclosed exactly how it happened." (Alexander Fleming, [Nobel lecture] 1945) 

"It may be that while we think we are masters of the situation we are merely pawns being moved about on the board of life by some superior power."  (Alexander Fleming, [Nobel lecture] 1945)

"A simple calculation shows that from the classical theory follows that we should find a broadening of the beam with the maximum intensity on the place of the beam without field. However, from the quantum theory follows that we should find there no intensity at all, and deflected molecules on both sides. The beam should split up in two beams corresponding to the two orientations of the magnet. The experiment decided in favor of the quantum theory." (Otto Stern, [Nobel lecture], 1946.

"Art and science can best grow and develop in a society which cherishes freedom and which shows respect for the needs, the happiness and the dignity of human beings." (Carl Cori, Carl, [Nobel lecture] 1947)

"Now the most striking feature of the atmospheric air at high levels is that it is ionized, and for that reason the spherical shell surrounding the earth at the levels with which we are concerned is called the ionosphere. It has, of course, been suspected for many years that when there is an aurora1 display, yielding intense luminosity, the upper atmosphere must be strongly ionized like the gas in a Geissler tube." (Edward VAppleton,"The ionosphere", [Nobel lecture" 1947) 

"On the practical side of applications, ionospheric research has provided the basic ideas underlying the development of practical radiolocation of solid objects, for both the pulse-modulation and the frequency-modulation methods of measuring the distance of a reflecting surface by radio means have been used in the techniques of radar. Also, since we now have a fair understanding of the way in which the ionization in the reflecting layers varies through the day, through the season, and through the sunspot cycle, it is possible to forecast what I may call the 'ionospheric weather' some time ahead. There has thus developed, on the practical side, the subject of 'ionospheric forecasting' by which it is possible to forecast, say, three months ahead, the most suitable wavelengths for use at any time of the day, over any distance of transmission, at any part of the world. In this way, scientific work conducted in the first instance with the object of exploring the wonders of the world around us, is now indicating how nation can speak unto nation with greater clarity and certainty." (Edward V Appleton,"The ionosphere", [Nobel lecture" 1947)

"The simplest explanation was that a neutral particle had collided with a nucleus and ejected two mesons, but this was rejected since one would expect to find very many more of such cases occurring in the lead plate in the gas. As these were not found, it was concluded that the forked track did not represent a collision process at all, but a case of spontaneous integration of an unstable particle." (Patrick M S Blackett, "Cloud chamber researches in nuclear physics and cosmic radiation", [Nobel lecture] 1948) 

🏅Nobel Lectures (1980-1989)

"At any one time there is a natural tendency among physicists to believe that we already know the essential ingredients of a comprehensive theory. But each time a new frontier of observation is broached we inevitably discover new phenomena which force us to modify substantially our previous conceptions. I believe this process to be unending, that the delights and challenges of unexpected discovery will continue always." (Val Logsdon, [Nobel lecture] 1980)

"Only if we assume that a poet constantly strives to liberate himself from borrowed styles in search for reality, is he dangerous. In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot. And, alas, a temptation to pronounce it, similar to an acute itching, becomes an obsession which doesn't allow one to think of anything else. That is why a poet chooses internal or external exile. It is not certain, however, that he is motivated exclusively by his concern with actuality. He may also desire to free himself from it and elsewhere, in other countries, on other shores, to recover, at least for short moments, his true vocation - which is to contemplate Being." (Czeslaw Milosz, [Nobel lecture] 1980) 

"Cognitive introspective psychology and related cognitive science can no longer be ignored experimentally, or written off as 'a science of epiphenomena', nor either as something that must, in principle, reduce eventually to neurophysiology. The events of inner experience, as emergent properties of brain processes, become themselves explanatory causal constructs in their own right, interacting at their own level with their own laws and dynamics. The whole world of inner experience (the world of the humanities) long rejected by 20th century scientific materialism, thus becomes recognized and included within the domain of science."(Roger W Sperry, [Nobel lecture], 1981)

"Earlier contentions that the right hemisphere is not even conscious largely gave way by the mid seventies to an intermediate position conceding that the mute hemisphere may be conscious at some lower elemental levels, but claiming that it lacks the higher, reflective, self-conscious kind of inner awareness that is special to the human mind and is needed, so it is said, to qualify the right conscious system as a 'self' or 'person'. Self awareness in particular is reported, on the basis of mirror tests mainly, to be a predominantly human attribute and is rated by developmental as well as by evolutionary standards to be a highly advanced phase of conscious awareness." (Roger W Sperry, [Nobel lecture], 1981)

"One of the more important things to come out of the split-brain work, as an indirect spin-off, is a revised concept of the nature of consciousness and its fundamental relation to brain processing. The key development here is a switch from prior non-causal, parallelist views to a new causal, or 'interactionist' interpretation that ascribes to inner experience an integral causal control role in brain function and behavior. In effect, and without resorting to dualist views, the mental forces and properties of the conscious mind are restored to the brain of objective science from which they had long been excluded on materialist-behaviorist principles." (Roger W Sperry, [Nobel lecture], 1981)

"Where there used to be a chasm and irreconcilable conflict between the scientific and the traditional humanistic views of man and the world, we now perceive a continuum. A unifying new interpretative framework emerges with far reaching impact not only for science but for those ultimate value-belief guidelines by which mankind has tried to live and find meaning." (Roger W Sperry, [Nobel lecture] 1981)

"There are almost unlimited possibilities for making discoveries and to uncover the unknown. It is in the nature of the discovery that it can not be planned or programmed. On the contrary it consists of surprises and appears many times in the most unexpected places. However, the basis of the discovery is imagination, careful reasoning and experimentation where the use of knowledge created by those who came before is an important component." (Bengt I Samuelsson, [Nobel speech] 1982) 

"A black hole partitions the three-dimensional space into two regions: an inner region which is bounded by a smooth two-dimensional surface called the event horizon; and an outer region, external to the event horizon, which is asymptotically flat; and it is required (as a part of the definition) that no point in the inner region can communicate with any point of the outer region. This incommunicability is guaranteed by the impossibility of any light signal, originating in the inner region, crossing the event horizon. The requirement of asymptotic flatness of the outer region is equivalent to the requirement that the black hole is isolated in space and that far from the event horizon the space-time approaches the customary space-time of terrestrial physics." (Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, "On Stars, Their Evolution, and Their Stability", [Nobel lecture] 1983)

"It is the great glory of the quest for human knowledge that, while making some small contribution to that quest, we can also continue to learn and to take pleasure in learning." (William A Fowler, [Nobel lecture] 1983)

"The mathematical theory of black holes is a subject of immense complexity; but its study has convinced me of the basic truth of the ancient mottoes 'The simple is the seal of the true' and 'beauty is the splendor of truth.'" (Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, "On Stars, Their Evolution, and Their Stability", [Nobel lecture] 1983)

"Turning to the physical properties of the black holes, we can study them best by examining their reaction to external perturbations such as the incidence of waves of different sorts. Such studies reveal an analytic richness of the Kerr space-time which one could hardly have expected. This is not the occasion to elaborate on these technical matters. Let it suffice to say that contrary to every prior expectation, all the standard equations of mathematical physics can be solved exactly in the Kerr space-time. And the solutions predict a variety and range of physical phenomena which black holes must exhibit in their interaction with the world outside." (Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, "On Stars, Their Evolution, and Their Stability", [Nobel lecture] 1983)

"To apply tools of science, physicians must learn to think like scientists. They must acquire technical ability, taste in evaluating experiments, and a sense of creative adventure." (Michael S Brown, [Nobel  lecture] 1985)

"All science is based on models, and every scientific model comprises three distinct stages: statement of well-defined hypotheses; deduction of all the consequences of these hypotheses, and nothing but these consequences; confrontation of these consequences with observed data." (Maurice Allais, "An Outline of My Main Contributions to Economic Science", [Nobel lecture] 1988

"However, mathematics is not and cannot be anything more than a tool, and all my work rests on the conviction that, in its use, the only two really fruitful stages in the scientific approach are, firstly, a thorough examination of the initial hypotheses; and secondly, a discussion of the meaning and empirical relevance of the results obtained. What remains is but tautological calculation, which is of interest only to the mathematician, and the mathematical rigour of the reasoning can never justify a theory based on postulates if these postulates do not correspond to the true nature of the observed phenomena." (Maurice Allais, "An Outline of My Main Contributions to Economic Science", [Nobel lecture] 1988) 

"The use of even the most sophisticated forms of mathematics can never be considered as a guarantee of quality. Mathematics is, and can only be, a means of expression and reasoning. The real substance on which the economist works remains economic and social. Indeed, one must avoid the development of a complex mathematical apparatus whenever it is not strictly indispensable. Genuine progress never consists in a purely formal exposition, but always in the discovery of the guiding ideas which underlie any proof. It is these basic ideas which must be explicitly stated and discussed." (Maurice Allais, "An Outline of My Main Contributions to Economic Science", [Nobel lecture] 1988)

"The submission to observed or experimental data is the golden rule which dominates any scientific discipline. Any theory whatever, if it is not verified by empirical evidence, has no scientific value and should be rejected. This is true, for example, of the contemporary theories of general economic equilibrium." (Maurice Allais, "An Outline of My Main Contributions to Economic Science", [Nobel lecture] 1988)

🏅Nobel Lectures (1930-1939)

"More than one way for doing the same thing is provided by the natural constitution of the nervous system. This luxury of means of compassing a given combination seems to offer the means of restitution of an act after its impairment or loss in one of its several forms." (Charles Sherrington, "Inhibition as a Coordinative Factor", [Nobel lecture] 1932) 

"To get an interpretation of some modern experimental results one must suppose that particles can be created and annihilated. Thus if a particle is observed to come out from another particle, one can no longer be sure that the latter is composite. The former may have been created. The distinction between elementary particles and composite particles now becomes a matter of convenience. This reason alone is sufficient to compel one to give up the attractive philosophical idea that all matter is made up of one kind, or perhaps two kinds of bricks." (Paul A M Dirac,"Theory of Electrons and Positrons", [Nobel lecture] 1933) 

"A living cell requires energy not only for all its functions, but also for the maintenance of its structure. Without energy life would be extinguished instantaneously, and the cellular fabric would collapse." (Albert Szent-Györgyi,"Oxidation, Energy Transfer, and Vitamins", [Nobel lecture] 1937) 

"The goddess of learning is fabled to have sprung fullgrown from the brain of Zeus, but it is seldom that a scientific conception is born in its fi nal form, or owns a single parent. More often it is the product of a series of minds, each in turn modifying the ideas of those that came before, and providing material for those that come after. The electron is no exception." (George P Thomson,"Electronic Waves", [Nobel lecture] 1937)

"Although the problem of transmuting chemical elements into each other is much older than a satisfactory definition of the very concept of chemical element, it is well known that the first and most important step towards its solution was made only nineteen years ago by the late Lord Rutherford, who started the method of the nuclear bombardments.” —  Enrico Fermi, [Nobel lecture] 1938) 

🏅Nobel Lectures (1900-1909)

"The circle within which the individual research worker, especially as an experimenter, can distinguish himself is continually shrinking in size. Consequently the progress of science today is not so much determined by brilliant achievements of individual workers, but rather by the planned collaboration of many observers." (Emil Fischer, "Syntheses in the Purine and Sugar Group", [Nobel lecture] 1902)

"[...] the veil behind which Nature has so carefully concealed her secrets is being lifted where the carbohydrates are concerned. Nevertheless, the chemical enigma of Life will not be solved until organic chemistry has mastered another, even more diffi cult subject, the proteins, in the same way as it has mastered the carbohydrates." (Emil Fischer, "Syntheses in the Purine and Sugar Group", [Nobel lecture] 1902)

"Essentially only one thing in life interests us: our psychical constitution, the mechanism of which was and is wrapped in darkness. All human resources, art, religion, literature, philosophy and historical sciences, all of them join in bringing light in this darkness." (, Ivan P Pavlov,"Physiology of Digestion", [Nobel lecture] 1904) 

"Each new discovery leaves in the brains of men seeds which make it possible for an ever-increasing number of minds of new generations to embrace even greater scientifi c concepts." (Alfred Nobel, "The Neuron Doctrine - Theory and Facts", [Nobel lecture] 1906) 

"[...] as for physics, it has developed remarkably as a precision science, in such a way that we can justifiably claim that the majority of all the greatest discoveries in physics are very largely based on the high degree of accuracy which can now be obtained in measurements made during the study of physical phenomena. [... Accuracy of measurement] is the very root, the essential condition, of our penetration deeper into the laws of physics - our only way to new discoveries." (K Bernhard Hasselberg, [Nobel Lecture] 1907)

"We must never, therefore, let ourselves fall into the way of thinking “ignorabimus” (“We shall never know”), but must have every confi dence that the day will dawn when even those processes of life which are still a puzzle today will cease to be inaccessible to us natural scientists." (Edward Buchner,"Cell-Free Fermentation", [Nobel lecture] 1907)

🏅Nobel Lectures (1910-1919)

"Moreover, and above all, let us remember that words count only when they give expression to deeds, or are to be translated into them. The leaders of the Red Terror prattled of peace while they steeped their hands in the blood of the innocent; and many a tyrant has called it peace when he has scourged honest protest into silence. Our words must be judged by our deeds; and in striving for a lofty ideal we must use practical methods; and if we cannot attain all at one leap, we must advance towards it step by step, reasonably content so long as we do actually make some progress in the right direction." (Theodore Roosevelt, [Nobel lecture] 1910)

"Theories cannot claim to be indestructible. They are only the plough which the ploughman uses to draw his furrow and which he has every right to discard for another one, of improved design, after the harvest." (Paul Sabatier, "The Method of Direct Hydrogenation by Catalysis" [Nobel lecture] 1912) 

"The regularities in the phenomena which physical science endeavors to uncover are called the laws of nature. The name is actually very appropriate. Just as legal laws regulate actions and behavior under certain conditions but do not try to regulate all action and behavior, the laws of physics also determine the behavior of its objects of interest only under certain well-defined conditions but leave much freedom otherwise." (Eugene P Wigner, "Events, Laws of Nature, and Invariance principles", [Nobel lecture] 1914)

"The importance of accurate knowledge in a case of this sort was foreseen long ago by Plato, who perhaps drew his inspiration from yet more ancient knowledge, coming from wise men of the Far East. As I have often quoted, he said: “If from any art that which concerns weighing and measuring and arithmetic is taken away, how little is left of that art!” The implication of this wise saying as regards the study of atomic weights is clear; any increase in the accuracy of the determination of these quantities must of necessity add greatly to our insight into the profound mysteries with which chemistry has to deal." (Theodore W Richards,"Atomic Weights", [Nobel lecture] 1914) 

"An indispensable hypothesis, even though still far from being a guarantee of success, is however the pursuit of a specific aim, whose lighted beacon, even by initial failures, is not betrayed." (Max Planck, "The Genesis and Present State of Development of the Quantum Theory", [Nobel lecture] 1918)

"[...] even if the radiation formula should prove itself to be absolutely accurate, it would after all be only an interpolation…it would still only have, within the signifi cance of a happily chosen interpolation formula, a strictly limited value. For this reason, I busied myself, from then on, that is, from the day of its establishment, with the task of elucidating a true physical character for the formula [...]" (Max Planck, "The Genesis and Present State of Development of the Quantum Theory", [Nobel lecture] 1918)

🏅Nobel Lectures (1920-1929)

"[...] generally speaking it is better, where possible in natural science, to study objects of research independently of the accidents of their historical development." (Walther Nernst,"Studies in Chemical Thermodynamics", [Nobel lecture] 1920) 

"As scientific men we have all, no doubt, felt that our fellow men have become more and more satisfying as fish have taken up their work which has been put often to base uses, which must lead to disaster. But what sin is to the moralist and crime to the jurist so to the scientific man is ignorance. On our plane, knowledge and ignorance are the immemorial adversaries. Scientific men can hardly escape the charge of ignorance with regard to the precise effect of the impact of modern science upon the mode of living of the people and upon their civilisation. For them, such a charge is worse than that of crime." (Frederick Soddy, [Nobel lecture] 1922)

"Should the research worker of the future discover some means of releasing this [atomic] energy in a form which could be employed, the human race will have at its command powers beyond the dreams of science fi ction; but the remote possibility must always be considered that the energy once liberated will be completely uncontrollable and by its intense violence detonate all neighboring substances. In this event the whole of the hydrogen on the earth might be transformed at once and the success of the experiment published at large to the universe as a new star." (Francis W Aston,"Mass Spectra and Isotopes", [Nobel lecture] 1922) 

"Those whose lives are so filled with the romance of discovery, whose years are a holiday of exploration, do not need, do not deserve, payment for their toil. Their work itself is adequate reward, they have more happiness already than their share…" (Archibald V Hill, [Nobel lecture] 1922)

"A prominent literary writer recently spoke of the electron as 'only the latest scientific hypothesis which will in its turn give way to the abra-ca-da-bra of tomorrow." (Robert A Millikan, "The Electron and the Light-Quant from the Experimental Point of View", [Nobel lecture] 1923) 

"Science walks forward on two feet, namely theory and experiment." (Robert A Millikan, "The Electron and the Light-Quant from the Experimental Point of View", [Nobel Lecture] 1923)

"The fundamental laws of chemistry which are well known to you and which are laws of discontinuity (discontinuity between chemical species, and discontinuous variation according to the 'multiple proportions' in the composition of species made from the same simple bodies) then become immediately clear: they are imposed solely by the condition that the molecule constituting a compound contains a necessarily whole number of atoms of each of the simple bodies combined in this compound." (Jean-Baptiste Perrin, "Discontinuous Structure of Matter", [Nobel lecture] 1926)

"We are, finally, forced to think that each grain only follows the portion of liquid surrounding it, in the same way that an indicating buoy indicates and analyses the movement all the better if it is smaller: a float follows the movement of the sea more faithfully than a battleship. We obtain from this an essential property of what is called a liquid in equilibrium: its repose is only an illusion due to the imperfection of our senses, and what we call equilibrium is a certain well-defined permanent system of a perfectly irregular agitation. This is an experimental fact in which no hypothesis plays any part." ("Discontinuous Structure of Matter", [Nobel lecture] 1926)

"The benefits of science are not only material ones. The truths that science teaches are of common interest the world over. The language of science is universal, and is a powerful force in bringing the peoples of the world closer together." (Arthur Compton, [Nobel lecture] 1927) 

"And this is the ultimate lesson that our knowledge of the mode of transmission of typhus has taught us: Man carries on his skin a parasite, the louse. Civilization rids him of it. Should man regress, should he allow himself to resemble a primitive beast, the louse begins to multiply again and treats man as he deserves, as a brute beast." (Charles Nicolle, "Investigations on Typhus", [Nobel lecture] 1928) 

"Any scientific problem must be attacked by research into detail; the natural scientist did not win his victories until he left meditation on the great riddles of the world and began a careful study of special problems; our knowledge - of more general associations and of far-reaching laws - has grown out of the results of such research." (Hans von Euler, "Fermentation of Sugars and Fermentative Enzymes", [Nobel lecture] 1929)

🏅Nobel Lectures (1950-1959)

"Coming out of space and incident on the high atmosphere, there is a thin rain of charged particles known as the primary cosmic radiation." (Cecil Powell, "The Cosmic Radiation", [Nobel lecture] 1950)

"I have not yet lost a feeling of wonder, and of delight, that this delicate motion should reside in all the things around us, revealing itself only to him who looks for it. I remember, in the winter of our first experiments, just seven years ago, looking on snow with new eyes. There the snow lay around my doorstep - great heaps of protons quietly precessing in the earth's magnetic field. To see the world for a moment as something rich and strange is the private reward of many a discovery. " (Edward M Purcell, [Nobel lecture] 1952) 

"It is an old story in physics that higher resolving power leads to new effects. We remember that the magnetic moment of the nucleus was itself discovered through the hyperfine structure of lines in the visible spectrum. The nuclear resonance line in a liquid or gas can be remarkably narrow, as you have already seen. As soon as the reason for this was recognized, it became clear that the only practical limit on resolution was the inhomogeneity of the magnetic field applied to the specimen." (Edward M Purcell, [Nobel lecture] 1952)

"I am impressed by the great limitations of the human mind. How quick are we to learn, that is, to imitate what others have done or thought before. And how slow to understand, that is, to see the deeper connections. Slowest of all, however, are we in inventing new connections or even in applying old ideas in a new field." (Frits Zernike, "How I Discovered Phase Contrast", [Nobel lecture] 1953)

"Every object that we perceive appears in innumerable aspects. The concept of the object is the invariant of all these aspects. From this point of view, the present universally used system of concepts in which particles and waves appear simultaneously, can be completely justified. The latest research on nuclei and elementary particles has led us, however, to limits beyond which this system of concepts itself does not appear to suffice. The lesson to be learned from what I have told of the origin of quantum mechanics is that probable refinements of mathematical methods will not suffice to produce a satisfactory theory, but that somewhere in our doctrine is hidden a concept, unjustified by experience, which we must eliminate to open up the road." (Max Born, "The Statistical Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics", [Nobel lecture] 1954)

"It was through [Heisenberg’s classic paper on the Uncertainty Principle] that the revolutionary character of the new conception became clear. It showed that not only the determinism of classical physics must be abandoned, but also the naive concept of reality which looked upon the particles of atomic physics as if they were very small grains of sand. At every instant a grain of sand has a definite position and velocity. This is not the case with an electron." (Max Born, "The Statistical Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics", [Nobel lecture] 1954)

"The human mind is conservative, and the scientist makes no exception from this rule. He will accept a new theory only if it stands the trial of many experimental tests." (Hermann Bondi, [Nobel lecture] 1955) 

"Nobody, I suppose, could devote many years to the study of chemical kinetics without being deeply conscious of the fascination of time and change: this is something that goes outside science into poetry; but science, subject to the rigid necessity of always seeking closer approximations to the truth, itself contains many poetical elements." (Cyril Hinshelwood, [Nobel lecture] 1956) 

"It is common knowledge today that in general a symmetry principle (or equivalently an invariance principle) generates a conservation law. For example, the invariance of physical laws under space displacement has as a consequence the conservation of momentum, the invariance under space rotation has as a consequence the conservation of angular momentum." (Chen-Ning Yang, "The Law of Parity Conservation and Other Symmetry Laws of Physics", [Nobel lecture] 1957)

"Nature possesses an order that one may aspire to comprehend." (Chen-Ning Yang, "The Law of Parity Conservation and Other Symmetry Laws of Physics", [Nobel lecture] 1957)

"[...] nature seems to take advantage of the simple mathematical representations of the symmetry laws. When one pauses to consider the elegance and the beautiful perfection of the mathematical reasoning involved and contrast it with the complex and far-reaching physical consequences, a deep sense of respect for the power of the symmetry laws never fails to develop." (Chen-Ning Yang, "The Law of Parity Conservation and Other Symmetry Laws of Physics", [Nobel lecture] 1957)

"The progress of science has always been the result of a close interplay between our concepts of the universe and our observations on nature. The former can only evolve out of the latter and yet the latter is also conditioned greatly by the former. Thus, in our exploration of nature, the interplay between our concepts and our observations may sometimes lead to totally unexpected aspects among already familiar phenomena." (Tsung D Lee,"Weak Interactions and Nonconservation of Parity", [Nobel lecture] 1957) 

"The progress of science has always been the result of a close interplay between our concepts of the universe and our observations on nature. The former can only evolve out of the latter and yet the latter is also conditioned greatly by the former. Thus, in our exploration of nature, the interplay between our concepts and our observations may sometimes lead to totally unexpected aspects among already familiar phenomena." (Tsung Dao Lee, [Nobel lecture] 1957)

"The quantum numbers that designate the states of a system are often identical with those that represent the symmetries of the system." (Chen-Ning Yang, "The Law of Parity Conservation and Other Symmetry Laws of Physics", [Nobel lecture] 1957)

"Whereas the continuous symmetries always lead to conservation laws in classical mechanics, a discrete symmetry does not. With the introduction of quantum mechanics, however, this difference between the discrete and continuous symmetries disappears. The law of right-left symmetry then leads also to a conservation law: the conservation of parity." (Chen-Ning Yang, "The Law of Parity Conservation and Other Symmetry Laws of Physics", [Nobel lecture] 1957) 

"With the advent of special and general relativity, the symmetry laws gained new importance. Their connection with the dynamic laws of physics takes on a much more integrated and interdependent relationship than in classical mechanics, where logically the symmetry laws were only consequences of the dynamical laws that by chance possess the symmetries. Also in the relativity theories the realm of the symmetry laws was greatly enriched to include invariances that were by no means apparent from daily experience. Their validity rather was deduced from, or was later confirmed by complicated experimentation. Let me emphasize that the conceptual simplicity and intrinsic beauty of the symmetries that so evolve from complex experiments are for the physicists great sources of encouragement. One learns to hope that Nature possesses an order that one may aspire to comprehend." (Chen-Ning Yang, "The Law of Parity Conservation and Other Symmetry Laws of Physics", [Nobel lecture] 1957)

🏅Nobel Lectures (2010-2019)

"Like writing, reading is a protest against the insufficiencies of life. When we look in fiction for what is missing in life, we are saying, with no need to say it or even to know it, that life as it is does not satisfy our thirst for the absolute – the foundation of the human condition – and should be better. We invent fictions in order to live somehow the many lives we would like to lead when we barely have one at our disposal." (Mario V Llosa, [Nobel lecture] 2010)

"Part of a meaningful quantitative analysis is to look at models and try to figure out their deficiencies and the ways in which they can be improved. A more subtle challenge for statistical methods is to explore systematically potential modeling errors in order to assess the quality of the model predictions. This kind of uncertainty about the adequacy of a model or model family is not only relevant for econometricians outside the model but potentially also for agents inside the models." (Lars P Hansen, "Uncertainty Outside and Inside Economic Models", [Nobel lecture] 2013)

"Uncertainty, generally conceived, is not often embraced in public discussions of economic policy. When uncertainty includes incomplete knowledge of dynamic responses, we might well be led away from arguments that 'complicated problems require complicated solutions'. When complexity, even formulated probabilistically, is not fully understood by policy makers, perhaps it is the simpler policies that are more prudent. This could well apply to the design of monetary policy, environmental policy and financial market oversight. Enriching our toolkit to address formally such challenges will improve the guidance that economists give when applying models to policy analysis." (Lars P Hansen, "Uncertainty Outside and Inside Economic Models", [Nobel lecture] 2013)

"Using random processes in our models allows economists to capture the variability of time series data, but it also poses challenges to model builders. As model builders, we must understand the uncertainty from two different perspectives. Consider first that of the econometrician, standing outside an economic model, who must assess its congruence with reality, inclusive of its random perturbations. An econometrician’s role is to choose among different parameters that together describe a family of possible models to best mimic measured real world time series and to test the implications of these models. I refer to this as outside uncertainty. Second, agents inside our model, be it consumers, entrepreneurs, or policy makers, must also confront uncertainty as they make decisions. I refer to this as inside uncertainty, as it pertains to the decision-makers within the model. What do these agents know? From what information can they learn? With how much confidence do they forecast the future? The modeler’s choice regarding insiders’ perspectives on an uncertain future can have significant consequences for each model’s equilibrium outcomes." (Lars P Hansen, "Uncertainty Outside and Inside Economic Models", [Nobel lecture] 2013)

"When confronted with multiple models, I find it revealing to pose the resulting uncertainty as a two-stage lottery. For the purposes of my discussion, there is no reason to distinguish unknown models from unknown parameters of a given model. I will view each parameter configuration as a distinct model. Thus a model, inclusive of its parameter values, assigns probabilities to all events or outcomes within the model’s domain. The probabilities are often expressed by shocks with known distributions and outcomes are functions of these shocks. This assignment of probabilities is what I will call risk. By contrast there may be many such potential models. Consider a two-stage lottery where in stage one we select a model and in stage two we draw an outcome using the model probabilities. Call stage one model ambiguity and stage two risk that is internal to a model." (Lars P Hansen, "Uncertainty Outside and Inside Economic Models", [Nobel lecture] 2013)

"When there is a reference to a decision problem, an analysis with multiple priors can deduce bounds on the expected utility consequences of alternative decisions, and more generally a mapping from alternative priors into alternative expected outcomes." (Lars P Hansen, "Uncertainty Outside and Inside Economic Models", [Nobel lecture] 2013)

"Why is it fruitful to consider model misspecification? In economics and as in other disciplines, models are intended to be revealing simplifications, and thus deliberately are not exact characterizations of reality; it is therefore specious to criticize economic models merely for being wrong. The important criticisms are whether our models are wrong in having missed something essential to the questions under consideration." (Lars P Hansen, "Uncertainty Outside and Inside Economic Models", [Nobel lecture] 2013)

🏅Nobel Lectures (1960-1969)

"Humanity has been passing through a gray and desolate time of confusion. My great predecessor, William Faulkner, speaking here, referred to it as a tragedy of universal fear so long sustained that there were no longer problems of the spirit, so that only the human heart in conflict with itself seemed worth writing about. Faulkner, more than most men, was aware of human strength as well as of human weakness. He knew that the understanding and the resolution of fear are a large part of the writer's reason for being. This is not new. The ancient commission of the writer has not changed. He is charged with exposing our many grievous faults and failures, with dredging up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement." (John Steinbeck, [Nobel lecture] 1962) 

"Physics does not endeavour to explain nature. In fact, the great success of physics is due to a restriction of its objectives: it only endeavours to explain the regularities in the behavior of objects." (Eugene P Wigner, "Events, Laws of Nature, and Invariance Principles", [Nobel Lecture], 1963)

"We have ceased to expect from physics an explanation of all events, even of the gross structure of the universe, and we aim only at the discovery of the laws of nature, that is the regularities, of the events." (Eugene P Wigner, "Events, Laws of Nature, and Invariance Principles", [Nobel Lecture], 1963)

"I think the problem is not to find the best or most efficient method to proceed to a discovery, but to find any method at all." (Richard P Feynman, "The Development of the Space-Time View of Quantum Electrodynamics", [Nobel lecture] 1965)

"Imagination reaches out repeatedly trying to achieve some higher level of understanding, until suddenly I find myself momentarily alone before one new corner of nature’s pattern of beauty and true majesty revealed." (Richard P Feynman, "The Development of the Space-Time View of Quantum Electrodynamics", [Nobel lecture] 1965)

"Perhaps a thing is simple if you can describe it fully in several different ways without immediately knowing that you are describing the same thing." (Richard P Feynman, "The Development of the Space-Time View of Quantum Electrodynamics", [Nobel lecture] 1965)

"The chance is high that the truth lies in the fashionable direction. But, on the off-chance that it is in another direction - a direction obvious from an unfashionable view of field theory - who will find it? Only someone who has sacrificed himself by teaching himself quantum electrodynamics from a peculiar and unfashionable point of view; one that he may have to invent for himself." (Richard P Feynman, "The Development of the Space-Time View of Quantum Electrodynamics", [Nobel lecture] 1965)

"I have often had cause to feel that my hands are cleverer than my head. That is a crude way of characterizing the dialectics of experimentation. When it is going well, it is like a quiet conversation with Nature. One asks a question and gets an answer; then one asks the next question, and gets the next answer. An experiment is a device to make Nature speak intelligibly. After that one has only to listen." (George Wald, "The Molecular Basis of Visual Excitation", [Nobel Lecture] 1967)

"Nature seems to take advantage of the simple mathematical representations of the symmetry laws. When one pauses to consider the elegance and the beautiful perfection of the mathematical reasoning involved and contrast it with the complex and far-reaching physical consequences, a deep sense of respect for the power of the symmetry laws never fails to develop." (Chen Ning Yang, [Nobel lecture] 1967)

"Experimental physicists [...] walk a narrow path with pitfalls on either side. If we spend all our time developing equipment, we risk the appellation of 'plumber', and if we merely use the tools developed by others, we risk the censure of our peers for being parasitic." (Luis W Alvarez, "Recent Developments in Particle Physics", [Nobel] 1968)

"Most of us who become experimental physicists do so for two reasons; we love the tools of physics because to us they have intrinsic beauty, and we dream of finding new secrets of nature as important and as exciting as those uncovered by our scientific heroes." (Luis W Alvarez, "Recent Developments in Particle Physics", [Nobel] 1968)

"How can it be that writing down a few simple and elegant formulae, like short poems governed by strict rules such as those of the sonnet or the waka, can predict universal regularities of Nature? Perhaps we see equations as simple because they are easily expressed in terms of mathematical notation already invented at an earlier stage of development of the science, and thus what appears to us as elegance of description really refl ects the interconnectedness of Nature’s laws at different levels." (Murray Gell-Mann,"[Nobel speech] 1969) 

🏅Nobel Lectures (1970-1979)

"As long as economic theory still works on a purely qualitative basis without attempting to measure the numerical importance of the various factors, practically any 'conclusion' can be drawn and defended." (Ragnar Frisch, "From Utopian Theory to Practical Applications", [Nobel lecture] 1970)

"A work of art bears within itself its own verification: conceptions which are devised or stretched do not stand being portrayed in images, they all come crashing down, appear sickly and pale, convince no one. But those works of art which have scooped up the truth and presented it to us as a living force - they take hold of us, compel us, and nobody ever, not even in ages to come, will appear to refute them." (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, [Nobel lecture], 1970)

"Deep in the human nature there is an almost irresistible tendency to concentrate physical and mental energy on attempts at solving problems that seem to be unsolvable." (Ragnar Frisch, "From Utopian Theory to Practical Applications", [Nobel lecture] 1970)

"Science is a field which grows continuously with ever expanding frontiers. Further, it is truly international in scope. Any particular advance has been preceded by the contributions of those from many lands who have set firm foundations for further developments. The Nobel awards should be regarded as giving recognition to this general scientific progress as well as to the individuals involved. Further, science is a collaborative effort. The combined results of several people working together is often much more effective than could be that of an individual scientist working alone." (John Bardeen, [Nobel lecture] 1972) 

"For a scientist, it is a unique experience to live through a period in which his field of endeavor comes to bloom - to be witness to those rare moments when the dawn of understanding fi nally descends upon what appeared to be confusion only a while ago - to listen to the sound of) darkness crumbling." (George E Palade, [Nobel lecture] 1974

"Life, this anti-entropy, ceaselessly reloaded with energy, is a climbing force, toward order amidst chaos, toward light, among the darkness of the indefinite, toward the mystic dream of Love, between the fire which devours itself and the silence of the Cold. Such a Nature does not accept abdication, nor skepticism." (Albert Claude, [Nobel lecture] 1974)

"A solution of newly appearing economic problems, and in particular those connected with the scientific-technical revolution often cannot be based on existing methods but needs new ideas and approaches. Such one is the problem of the protection of nature. The problem of economic valuation of technical innovations efficiency and rates of their spreading cannot be solved only by the long-term estimation of direct outcomes and results without accounting peculiarities of new industrial technology, its total contribution to technical progress." (Leonid V Kantorovich, "Mathematics in Economics: Achievements, Difficulties, Perspectives", [Nobel lecture] 1975)

"In infinite space many civilizations are bound to exist, among them societies that may be wiser and more 'successful' than ours. I support the cosmological hypothesis which states that the development of the universe is repeated in its basic characteristics an infi nite number of times. [...] Yet this should not minimize our sacred endeavors in this world of ours, where, like faint glimmers in the dark, we have emerged for a moment from the nothingness of dark unconscious into material existence." (Andrei Sakharov, "Peace, Progress, Human Rights", [Nobel lecture] 1975)

"In our time mathematics has penetrated into economics so solidly, widely and variously, and the chosen theme is connected with such a variety of facts and problems that it brings us to cite the words of Kozma Prutkov which are very popular in our country: 'One can not embrace the unembraceable'. The appropriateness of this wise sentence is not diminished by the fact that the great thinker is only a pen-name." (Leonid V Kantorovich, "Mathematics in Economics: Achievements, Difficulties, Perspectives", [Nobel lecture] 1975)

"The hard thing in a model realization is to receive and often to construct necessary data which in many cases have considerable errors and sometimes are completely absent, since none needed them previously. Difficulties of principle lie in the future prediction data and in the estimation of industry development variants." (Leonid V Kantorovich, "Mathematics in Economics: Achievements, Difficulties, Perspectives", [Nobel lecture] 1975)

"The treatment of the economy as a single system, to be controlled toward a consistent goal, allowed the efficient systematization of enormous information material, its deep analysis for valid decision-making. It is interesting that many inferences remain valid even in cases when this consistent goal could not be formulated, either for the reason that it was not quite clear or for the reason that it was made up of multiple goals, each of which to be taken into account." (Leonid V Kantorovich, "Mathematics in Economics: Achievements, Difficulties, Perspectives", [Nobel lecture] 1975)

"The accounting methods based on mathematical models, the use of computers for computations and information data processing make up only one part of the control mechanism, another part is the control structure." (Leonid V Kantorovich, "Mathematics in Economics: Achievements, Difficulties, Perspectives", [Nobel lecture] 1975)

"Writers are greatly respected. The intelligent public is wonderfully patient with them, continues to read them, and endures disappointment after disappointment, waiting to hear from art what it does not hear from theology, philosophy, social theory, and what it cannot hear from pure science. Out of the struggle at the center has come an immense, painful longing for a broader, more flexible, fuller, more coherent, more comprehensive account of what we human beings are, who we are and what this life is for" (Saul Bellow, [Nobel lecture] 1976)

"Cosmology is a science which has only a few observable facts to work with." (Robert W Wilson, [Nobel lecture] 1978)

"[...] scientific thought and its creation is the common and shared heritage of mankind." (Abdus Salam, "Gauge Unifi cation of Fundamental Forces", [Nobel lecture] 1979)

"Tapestries are made by many artisans working together. The contributions of separate workers cannot be discerned in the completed work, and the loose and false threads have been covered over. So it is in our picture of particle physics." (Sheldon L Glashow, "Towards a Unified Theory - Threads in a Tapestry", [Nobel lecture] 1979)

"The confusion of the past [in particle physics] is now replaced by a simple and elegant synthesis. [This] standard theory may survive as a part of the ultimate theory, or it may turn out to be fundamentally wrong. In either case, it will have been an important way-station, and the next theory will have to be better." (Sheldon L Glashow, "Towards a Unified Theory - Threads in a Tapestry", [Nobel lecture] 1979)

"This in effect is, the faith of all physicists; the deeper we seek, the more is our wonder excited, the more is the dazzlement for our gaze." (Abdus Salam, [Nobel lecture] 1979)