On Universe (Unsourced)

"[…] if one really understood the central point and its necessity in the construction of the world, one ought to be able to state it in one clear, simple sentence. Until we see the quantum principle with this simplicity we can well believe that we do not know the first thing about the universe, about ourselves, and about our place in the universe." (John A Wheeler)

"Everything you’ve learned in school as 'obvious' becomes less and less obvious as you begin to study the universe." (Richard B Fuller)

"Exploring Pi is like exploring the universe." (David Chudnovsky)

"God may not play dice with the universe, but something strange is going on with the prime numbers." (Paul Erdos)

"Human thought, flying on the trapezes of the star-filled universe, with mathematics stretched beneath, was like an acrobat working with a net but suddenly noticing that in reality there is no net." (Vladimir Nabokov)

"I find it as difficult to understand a scientist who does not acknowledge the presence of a superior rationality behind the existence of the universe as it is to comprehend a theologian who would deny the advances of science." (Wernher von Braun)

"It is Proportion that beautifies everything, the whole Universe consists of it, and Musicke is measured by it." (Orlando Gibbons)

"Just as the constant increase of entropy is the basic law of the universe, so it is the basic law of life to be ever more highly structured and to struggle against entropy." (Václav Havel, [Letter to Gustáv Husák])

"Man is not born to solve the problems of the universe, but to find out where the problems begin, and then to take his stand within the limits of the intelligible." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

"Man’s first glance at the universe discovers only variety, diversity, multiplicity of phenomena. Let that glance be illuminated by science - by the science which brings man closer to God, - and simplicity and unity shine on all sides." (Louis Pasteur)

"Math is the language of the universe. So the more equations you know, the more you can converse with the cosmos." (Neil deGrasse Tyson)

"Mathematics is not only real, but it is the only reality. [The] entire universe is made of matter, obviously. And matter is made of particles. It's made of electrons and neutrons and protons. So the entire universe is made out of particles. Now what are the particles made out of? They're not made out of anything. The only thing you can say about the reality of an electron is to cite its mathematical properties. So there's a sense in which matter has completely dissolved and what is left is just a mathematical structure." (Martin Gardner)

"Nothing in the universe is contingent, but all things are conditioned to exist and operate in a particular manner by the necessity of the divine nature." (Baruch Spinoza)

"Number rules the universe." (Pythagoras)

"One might describe the mathematical quality in Nature by saying that the universe is so constituted that mathematics is a useful tool in its description. However, recent advances in physical science show that this statement of the case is too trivial. The connection between mathematics and the description of the universe goes far deeper than this, and one can get an appreciation of it only from a thorough examination of the various facts that make it up." (Paul A M Dirac)

"Our sunsets have been reduced to wavelengths and frequencies. The complexities of the universe have been shredded into mathematical equations. Even our self-worth as human beings has been destroyed." (Dan Brown)

"Science and poetry are, in fact, inseparable. By providing a vision of life, of Earth, of the universe in all its splendor, science does not challenge human values; it can inspire human values. It does not negate faith; it celebrates faith." (Jacques-Yves Cousteau)

"Science is opposed to theological dogmas because science is founded on fact. To me, the universe is simply a great machine which never came into being and never will end. The human being is no exception to the natural order. Man, like the universe, is a machine." (Nikola Tesla)

"Scientific understanding is an essential step to our finding a home for ourselves in the universe. Through understanding the universe, we become at home in it. In a certain sense we have made this universe out of human concepts and human discoveries. It ceases to be a lonely place, because we can to some extent actually navigate in it." (Isidor Isaac Rabi)

"Since primes are the basic building blocks of the number universe from which all the other natural numbers are composed, each in its own unique combination, the perceived lack of order among them looked like a perplexing discrepancy in the otherwise so rigorously organized structure of the mathematical world." (H Peter Aleff, "Prime Passages to Paradise")

"Ten decimal places of pi are sufficient to give the circumference of the earth to a fraction of an inch, and thirty decimal places would give the circumference of the visible universe to a quantity imperceptible to the most powerful microscope." (Simon Newcomb)

"That deep emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God." (Albert Einstein)

"The mathematician is entirely free, within the limits of his imagination, to construct what worlds he pleases. What he is to imagine is a matter for his own caprice; he is not thereby discovering the fundamental principles of the universe nor becoming acquainted with the ideas of God." (John W N Sullivan)

"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)

"The universe is an enormous direct product of representations of symmetry groups." (Steven Weinberg)

"The universe is built on a plan the profound symmetry of which is somehow present in the inner structure of our intellect." (Paul Valery)

"The whole universe is one mathematical and harmonic expression, made up of finite representations of the infinite." (Fritz L Kunz)

"To those of us who spend our lives working on scientific problems, science is a great intellectual adventure of such interest that nothing else we ever do can compare with it. We are attempting to understand the order of a physical universe, vast in extent in space and time, and most complicated and beautiful in its details." (Harold Urey)

"[...] we and our models are both part of the universe we are describing. Thus a physical theory is self referencing, like in Gödel’s theorem. One might therefore expect it to be either inconsistent or incomplete. The theories we have so far are both inconsistent and incomplete." (Stephen Hawking, "Gödel and the End of the Universe" )

"We find, therefore, under this orderly arrangement, a wonderful symmetry in the universe, and a definite relation of harmony in the motion and magnitude of the orbs, of a kind that is not possible to obtain in any other way." (Johannes Kepler)

"What you can show using physics, forces this universe to continue to exist. As long as you're using general relativity and quantum mechanics you are forced to conclude that God exists." (Frank Tipler)

"When confronted with the order and beauty of the universe and the strange coincidences of nature, it's very tempting to take the leap of faith from science into religion. I am sure many physicists want to. I only wish they would admit it." (Tony Rothman)