"As I shall describe, the prospects for finding such a theory seem to be much better now because we know so much more about the universe. But we must beware of overconfidence - we have had false dawns before! At the beginning of this century, for example, it was thought that everything could be explained in terms of the properties of continuous matter, such as elasticity and heat conduction. The discovery of atomic structure and the uncertainty principle put an emphatic end to that. Then again, in 1928, physicist and Nobel Prize winner Max Born told a group of visitors to Gottingen University, "Physics, as we know it, will be over in six months." His confidence was based on the recent discovery by Dirac of the equation that governed the electron. It was thought that a similar equation would govern the proton, which was the only other particle known at the time, and that would be the end of theoretical physics. However, the discovery of the neutron and of nuclear forces knocked that one on the head too. Having said this, I still believe there are grounds for cautious optimism that we may now be near the end of the search for the ultimate laws of nature."
React to this quote
More by Stephen Hawking
See allResonant Thoughts
"After all there is the two edged sword that will never fail you, with enthusiasm for one of its edges and irony for the other. However mired and weedy be the current of life there will be always joy a…"
"Good music really adds something creative to the film, something which wasn’t there before, an element which wasn’t in the film before. You can be working with very distinguished directors and actors …"
Explore Further
Related Quotes
"We know nothing accurately in reality, but [only] as it changes according to the bodily condition, and the …"
— Democritus"Spoor's observations are truly startling, In all species of the genus Homo, the inner ear structure is indi…"
— Richard Leakey"While most people... were seeking to modify the principles of either relativity or quantum theory, we surpr…"
— Lee Smolin"...talent and genius operate outside the rules, and theory conflicts with practice."
— Carl von Clausewitz"The secret irony pervading these arguments is that they would never have occurred to consciences that had n…"
— David Bentley Hart"Many pressing problems facing science and society are inherently geospatial – location matters. The availab…"
— Alan MacEachren

