Murray Gell-Mann

The total absence of humor in the Bible is one of the most singular things in all literature.

We have this marvelous universe and we don't know why it's here. That's the great mystery.

All of modern physics is governed by that magnificent and thoroughly confusing discipline called quantum mechanics.

The strangeness quantum number is conserved in strong and electromagnetic interactions, but not in weak interactions.

A physicist is just an atom's way of looking at itself.

The most important product of knowledge is ignorance.

Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.

The history of the idea of the atomic constitution of matter is a good example of how science works.

The whole point of science is that most of it is uncertain. That's why science is exciting—because we don't know.

If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Midgets.

The future is not a mere extrapolation of the present; it is shaped by the emergence of novelty.

The distinction between the past and the future is only an illusion, but a persistent one.

The beauty of a theory is often a guide to its truth.

The strong force is what holds the atomic nucleus together, and it's the strongest force we know, hence the name.

I'm always fascinated by the borderland between order and chaos.

The world of elementary particles is a kind of modern mythology.

When you have a really good idea, it's likely that someone else has had it too. That's why priority disputes are so common.

The laws of physics are written in the language of mathematics.

The term 'quark' comes from James Joyce's 'Finnegans Wake'—'Three quarks for Muster Mark!'

A scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die.