Models with a Twist

"Every theory of the course of events in nature is necessarily based on some process of simplification and is to some extent, therefore, a fairy tale." (Sir Napier Shaw, “Manual of Meteorology”, 1932)

“Models - in contrast to those who sat for Renoir - improve with age.” (Erwin Chargaff, “Heraclitean Fire”, 1978)

“What is a model? A model is like an Austrian timetable. Austrian trains are always late. A Prussian visitor asks the Austrian conductor why they bother to print timetables. The conductor replies ‘If we did not, how would we know how late the trains are?’” (Victor F Weisskopf)

“A model is a work of fiction.” (Nancy Cartwright, 1983) “In science, as in life, it is extremely dangerous to fall in love with beautiful models.” (Vijay Pande)

“It is a paradox in mathematics and physics that we have no good model for the teaching of models.” (Hartley Rogers Jr)

“Old models never die; they just fade away.” (Robert M Solow, “How Did Economics Get That Way and What Way Did It Get?”, Daedalus, Vol. 126, No. 1, 1997) [Link]

"There are no surprising facts, only models that are surprised by facts; and if a model is surprised by the facts, it is no credit to that model." (Eliezer S Yudkowsky, "Quantum Explanations", 2008)

“Classical models tell us more than we at first can know.” (Karl Popper)

“A theory has only the alternative of being right or wrong. A model has a third possibility: it may be right, but irrelevant.” (Manfred Eigen, 'The Origin of Biological Information' [in “The Physicists's Conception of Nature”, Ed. by Jagdish Mehra, 1973)

“The best model of a cat is a cat. Preferably the same cat.” (Arturo Rosenblueth, “Philosophy of Science”, 1945) [also attributed to Norbert Wiener]