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)

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

"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)

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

"A model is a work of fiction." (Nancy Cartwright, 1983) 

"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) 

"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)

"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)

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

"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, howwould we know how late the trains are?’" (Victor F Weisskopf)