"A theory of physics is not an explanation; it is a system of mathematical oppositions deduced from a small number of principles the aim of which is to represent as simply, as completely, and as exactly as possible, a group of experimental laws." (Pierre-Maurice-Marie Duhem)
"Ever since the observation of nature has existed, it has held a vague notion of its ultimate goal as the composition of the colorful multiplicity of phenomena in a uniform system, where possible, in a single formula." (Max Planck)
"Instead of seeking to attain consistency and uniformity of system, as some modern writers have attempted, by banishing this thought of time from the higher Algebra, I seek to attain the same object, by systematically introducing it into the lower or earlier parts of the science." (Sir William R Hamilton)
"Nature, despite her seeming diversity, is always a unity, a whole; and thus, when she manifests herself in any part of that whole, the rest must serve as a basis for that particular manifestation, and the latter must have a relationship to the rest of the system." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
"No man becomes proficient in any science who does not transcend system, and gather up new truth for himself in the boundless field of research." (Andrew P Peabody)
"Physics is not a machine one can take apart; one cannot try each piece in isolation and wait, to adjust it, until its solidity has been minutely checked. Physical science is a system that must be taken as a whole. It is an organism no part of which can be made to function without the remotest parts coming into play, some more, some less, but all in some degree." (Pierre-Maurice-Marie Duhem)
"The closer we get to know the creatures around us, the clearer is the understanding we obtain of the chain of nature, and its harmony and system, according to which all things appear to have been created." (Carl Linnaeus)
"The laws of science are not viewed in independence of one another. Together they form a vast body or system of laws, with each law fitting into a system including many other laws, each mutually reinforcing the others. The laws that scientists are most loathe to abandon are those that form such an integral part of a system of laws that the abandonment of the one law would require the abandonment or alteration of a larger number of other laws in the system. Thus an observation that directly confirms one law indirectly confirms a group of laws, because of the interconnection of the laws in a system […] whether or not something is called a law, then, depends to a large extent on how deeply embedded it is in a wider system of laws." (John Hospers & Grace M Hopper)
"The present state of the system of nature is evidently a consequence of what is in the preceding moment, and if we conceive of an intelligence which at a given instant knew all the forces acting in nature and the position of every object in the universe - if endowed with a brain sufficiently vast to make all necessary calculations - could describe with a single formula the motions of the largest astronomical bodies and those of the smallest atoms. To such an intelligence, nothing would be uncertain; the future, like the past, would be an open book." (Pierre-Simon Laplace)
"What is the inner secret of mathematical power? Briefly stated, it is that mathematics discloses the skeletal outlines of all closely articulated relational systems. For this purpose mathematics uses the language of pure logic with its score or so of symbolic words, which, in its important forms of expression, enables the mind to comprehend systems of relations otherwise completely beyond its power. These forms are creative discoveries which, once made, remain permanently at our disposal. By means of them the scientific imagination is enabled to penetrate ever more deeply into the rationale of the universe about us." (George D Birkhoff)
"When matter is becoming disturbed by non-equilibrium conditions it organizes itself, it wakes up. It happens that our world is a non-equilibrium system." (Ilya Prigogine)
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