It takes so long to train a physicist to the place where he understands the nature of physical problems that he is already too old to solve them.
Eugene WignerRead
The full meaning of life, the collective meaning of all human desires, is fundamentally a mystery beyond our grasp. As a young man, I chafed at this state of affairs. But by now I have made peace with it. I even feel a certain honor to be associated with such a mystery.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The meaning of life is an elusive mystery that we must learn to accept and honor.
Eugene Wigner reflects on the complexity and the enigmatic nature of life's meaning, suggesting that rather than succumbing to frustration over our inability to comprehend it fully, we should embrace this mystery. Over time, he has found peace with it, and even values the experience of grappling with such profound questions about human desires and existence.
Themes
LifeMysteryMeaningHuman DesiresAcceptance
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the human experience at a philosophy convention.
More from Eugene Wigner
All quotes →It was not possible to formulate the laws of quantum mechanics in a fully consistent way without reference to the consciousness.
Eugene WignerRead
The great mathematician fully, almost ruthlessly, exploits the domain of permissible reasoning and skirts the impermissible. That his recklessness does not lead him into a morass of contradictions is a miracle in itself: certainly it is hard to believe that our reasoning power was brought, by Darwin's process of natural selection, to the perfection which it seems to possess.
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The miracle of the appropriateness of the language of mathematics for the formulation of the laws of physics is a wonderful gift which we neither understand nor deserve.
Eugene WignerRead
The simplicities of natural laws arise through the complexities of the language we use for their expression.
Eugene WignerRead
The unreasonable efficiency of mathematics in science is a gift we neither understand nor deserve.
Eugene WignerRead
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