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My own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.
John B. S. Haldane
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The universe is more complex and strange than our minds can comprehend.

John B. S. Haldane suggests that the universe contains mysteries and complexities that extend beyond our current understanding and imagination. This perspective invites humility regarding our knowledge of existence and encourages exploration of the unknown.

Themes

UniverseComplexityKnowledgeMysteryExploration

In practice

Example use cases

During a lecture on cosmology, one could use this quote to highlight the limits of human understanding.

More from John B. S. Haldane

And if we must educate our poets and artists in science, we must educate our masters, labour and capital, in art.
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An attempt to study the evolution of living organisms without reference to cytology would be as futile as an account of stellar evolution which ignored spectroscopy.
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Until politics are a branch of science, we shall do well to regard political and social reforms as experiments rather than short-cuts to the millennium.
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A time will however come (as I believe) when physiology will invade and destroy mathematical physics, as the latter has destroyed geometry.
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My final word, before I'm done, Is "Cancer can be rather fun"- Provided one confronts the tumour with a sufficient sense of humour. I know that cancer often kills, But so do cars and sleeping pills; And it can hurt till one sweats, So can bad teeth and unpaid debts. A spot of laughter, I am sure, Often accelerates one's cure; So let us patients do our bit To help the surgeons make us fit.
John B. S. HaldaneRead
My practise as a scientist is atheistic. That is to say, when I set up an experiment I assume that no god, angel, or devil is going to interfere with its course; and this assumption has been justified by such success as I have achieved in my professional career. I should therefore be intellectually dishonest if I were not also atheistic in the affairs of the world. And I should be a coward if I did not state my theoretical views in public.
John B. S. HaldaneRead

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