8 Interesting Quotes By George Paget Thomson

Probably every physicist would believe in a creation if the Bible had not unfortunately said something about it many years ago and made it seem old fashioned.

Sir George Paget Thomson

  

One can always make a theory, many theories, to account for known facts, occasionally even to predict new ones. The test is aesthetic.

Sir George Paget Thomson

  

An electron is like an able guerrilla leader who occupies a wide area with rumors of his presence, but when he strikes, he strikes with his whole force.

Sir George Paget Thomson

  

In order to make an experiment meaningful one must have a theory as to what matters for the experiment.

Sir George Paget Thomson

  

The influence of science on men's lives comes in two rather different ways, one through the ideas themselves, and the other through their material consequences.

Sir George Paget Thomson

  

There is great power in truth and sincerity. The mathematics community has tremendous reserves of human potential energy. If we are lean and hungry, we are likely to use our energy. If we are honest, it is likely to be effective.

Sir George Paget Thomson

  

The goddess of learning is fabled to have sprung full-grown from the brain of Zeus, but it is seldom that a scientific conception is born in its final form, or owns a single parent. More often it is the product of a series of minds, each in turn modifying the ideas of those that came before, and providing material for those that came after. The electron is no exception.

Learning

Sir George Paget Thomson

  

The progress of science is a little like making a jig-saw puzzle. One makes collections of pieces which certainly fit together, though at first it is not clear where each group should come in the picture as a whole, and if at first one makes a mistake in placing it, this can be corrected later without dismantling the whole group.

Sir George Paget Thomson