Quotes and Sayings about Theory
"My theory is that if you look confident you can pull off anything - even if you have no clue what you're doing."
- Jessica Alba
(Related: Theory)
"At that time, the academic orientation was rather technical contrary to that of the university, where art theory is very important. The teachers were renowned artists and among the best of that time."
- Ralph Allen
(Related: Art, Time, Artists, Teachers, Theory, University)
"Men who hold a theory of the Church which excludes from communion those whom they admit to have the Spirit of Christ simply proclaim that their theory is in flat contradiction to the spiritual fact."
- Roland Allen
(Related: Men, Church, Christ, Contradiction, Fact, Spirit, Spiritual, Theory)
"About seven years later I was given a book about the periodic table of the elements. For the first time I saw the elegance of scientific theory and its predictive power."
- Sidney Altman
(Related: Power, Time, Elegance, First, Theory, Years)
"I'm not sure what theory is, unless it's the pursuit of fundamental questions."
- David Antin
(Related: Pursuit, Questions, Theory)
"Suspense is very important. Even though this is humor and they're short stories, that theory of building suspense is still there."
- Sergio Aragones
(Related: Humor, Building, Suspense, Theory)
"Good art theory must smell of the studio, although its language should differ from the household talk of painters and sculptors."
- Rudolf Arnheim
(Related: Art, Language, Talk, Theory)
"Entropy theory, on the other hand, is not concerned with the probability of succession in a series of items but with the overall distribution of kinds of items in a given arrangement."
- Rudolf Arnheim
(Related: Theory)
"Entropy theory is indeed a first attempt to deal with global form; but it has not been dealing with structure. All it says is that a large sum of elements may have properties not found in a smaller sample of them."
- Rudolf Arnheim
(Related: First, May, Theory)
"The absurd consequences of neglecting structure but using the concept of order just the same are evident if one examines the present terminology of information theory."
- Rudolf Arnheim
(Related: Consequences, Information, Order, Present, Theory)
"Creationists make it sound as though a 'theory' is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night."
- Isaac Asimov
(Related: Being, Night, Sound)
"I have never believed in the Wizard of Oz theory of consulting, that I am all-knowing and all-seeing, and that everyone around me is kind of a backbencher."
- David Axelrod
(Related: Consulting, Theory)
"Technique! The very word is like a shriek of outraged Art. It is the idiot name given to effort by those who are too weak, too weary, or too dull to play the game. The mighty have no theory of technique."
- Leonard Bacon
(Related: Art, Effort, Name, Play, Theory, Word)
"Playing music is not really susceptible to theory much. Circumstances affect it so much."
- Derek Bailey
(Related: Music, Circumstances, Theory)
"I believe without exception that theory follows practice. Whenever there is a conflict between theory and practice, theory is wrong. As far as I'm concerned, we make theories for what people have done."
- David Baker
(Related: People, Conflict, Practice, Theories, Theory, Wrong)
"I'm from the Midwest, and I loved my family. I had a very good time as a child, but I was also - I have a theory about Jews growing up in the Midwest, that there is an ultimately sort of wonderful avoidance of a lot of things, and a great acceptance of whatever is happening."
- Bob Balaban
(Related: Time, Family, Acceptance, Growing up, Theory)
"I have this theory that, depending on your attitude, your life doesn't have to become this ridiculous charade that it seems so many people end up living."
- Christian Bale
(Related: Life, People, Attitude, End, Living, Theory)
"The incorrectness and weaknesses of a theory cause other minds to formulate the problems more exactly and in this way scientific progress is made."
- Robert Barany
(Related: Progress, Cause, Problems, Theory)
"I became intrigued with colour theory. The absurd pronouncements of the Colour Institute, a group that decides what colours are hot each year or season, amused me."
- John Barton
(Related: Theory)
"All theory of modernity in sociology suggests that the more modernity there is, the less religion. In my theory we can realize that this is wrong: atheism is only one belief system among many."
- Ulrich Beck
(Related: Religion, Belief, Atheism, Modernity, Theory)
"The theory of undirected evolution is already dead, but the work of science continues."
- Michael Behe
(Related: Science, Work, Evolution, Theory)
"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is."
- Yogi Berra
(Related: Difference, Practice, Theory)
"Land: A part of the earth's surface, considered as property. The theory that land is property subject to private ownership and control is the foundation of modern society, and is eminently worthy of the superstructure."
- Ambrose Bierce
(Related: Society, Control, Earth, Land, Ownership, Property, Theory)
"I've got a theory that if you give 100% all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end."
- Larry Bird
(Related: Work, Time, End, Theory, Will)
"When I dealt with set theory, I could never make it be the music that I wanted."
- Harrison Birtwistle
(Related: Music, Theory)
"Minimalism now is a reaction to what came before. It's absolutely of its time. Music moved into the set theory thing, and moved out of it."
- Harrison Birtwistle
(Related: Music, Time, Now, Theory)
"It is on the acceptance or rejection of the theory of the Unity of all in Nature, in its ultimate Essence, that mainly rests the belief or unbelief in the existence around us of other conscious beings besides the Spirits of the Dead."
- H. P. Blavatsky
(Related: Nature, Belief, Acceptance, Existence, Rejection, Spirits, Theory, Unbelief, Unity)
"It was an absurd theory that by cutting taxes you would increase government revenues, because the growth of the economy would create an overflow of taxes that would fall into the government coffers."
- Sidney Blumenthal
(Related: Government, Growth, Economy, Taxes, Theory)
"One thus sees that a new kind of theory is needed which drops these basic commitments and at most recovers some essential features of the older theories as abstract forms derived from a deeper reality in which what prevails in unbroken wholeness."
- David Bohm
(Related: Reality, Theories, Theory)
"Your theory is crazy, but it's not crazy enough to be true."
- Niels Bohr
(Related: Theory)
"We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question which divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct. My own feeling is that it is not crazy enough."
- Niels Bohr
(Related: Being, Chance, Feeling, Question, Theory)
"I am not the kind of girl who can trust a theory based on one person."
- Brigitte Boisselier
(Related: Trust, Theory)
"I have a theory about the human mind. A brain is a lot like a computer. It will only take so many facts, and then it will go on overload and blow up."
- Erma Bombeck
(Related: Computer, Facts, Mind, Theory, Will)
"My theory on housework is, if the item doesn't multiply, smell, catch fire, or block the refrigerator door, let it be. No one else cares. Why should you?"
- Erma Bombeck
(Related: Fire, Housework, Theory)
"In order to govern, the question is not to follow out a more or less valid theory but to build with whatever materials are at hand. The inevitable must be accepted and turned to advantage."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
(Related: Order, Question, Theory)
"Probability is expectation founded upon partial knowledge. A perfect acquaintance with all the circumstances affecting the occurrence of an event would change expectation into certainty, and leave nether room nor demand for a theory of probabilities."
- George Boole
(Related: Change, Knowledge, Acquaintance, Certainty, Circumstances, Expectation, Theory)
"At MIT, I had the good fortune for seven years to teach network theory, which is basic to many disciplines, to one-third of the undergraduate student body. It was an experiment to see how high we could bring their level of understanding, and it exceeded all of my expectations."
- Amar Bose
(Related: Body, Expectations, Fortune, Network, Theory, Understanding, Years)
"My theory is this; I'm not a political songwriter. I'm an honest songwriter."
- Billy Bragg
(Related: Theory)
"I'm very manipulative towards directors. My theory is that everyone on the set is directing the film, we're all receiving art messages from the universe on how we should do the film."
- Jeff Bridges
(Related: Art, Film, Theory, Universe)
"What remains constant for me, during the last 15 years, has been the conviction that the cold war was a calamity for the entire world, and that it can be justified by no consideration of theory, nor by any supposed national interest."
- Earl Browder
(Related: War, Calamity, Consideration, Conviction, Interest, Theory, World, Years)
"Of thousands of others, nearer the centre of the explosion, there was no trace. They vanished. The theory in Hiroshima is that the atomic heat was so great that they burned instantly to ashes - except that there were no ashes."
- Wilfred Burchett
(Related: Theory)
"Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation."
- Edmund Burke
(Related: Art, Religion, Creation, Man, Theory)
"Architecture theory is very interesting."
- David Byrne
(Related: Architecture, Theory)
"The whole action of the laws tended to increase the number of consumers of food and to diminish the number of producers, was due the invention of the Malthusian theory of population."
- Henry Charles Carey
(Related: Food, Action, Invention, Laws, Population, Theory)
"In the absence of evidence, superstition. It's a Middle Ages thing. That's my theory anyway."
- Tucker Carlson
(Related: Absence, Superstition, Theory)
"My mom would give me a piece to play, but I wouldn't do any theory because when it came time to do it I would sneak back upstairs and watch TV. So, I had these kind of nonchalant lessons for years, then it just started soaking in."
- Vanessa Carlton
(Related: Mom, Time, Play, Theory, Years)
"I grow daily to honour facts more and more, and theory less and less. A fact, it seems to me, is a great thing; a sentence printed, if not by God, then at least by the Devil."
- Thomas Carlyle
(Related: God, Devil, Fact, Facts, Theory)
"As for everything else, so for a mathematical theory: beauty can be perceived but not explained."
- Arthur Cayley
(Related: Beauty)
"Sense data are much more controversial than qualia, because they are associated with a controversial theory of perception - that one perceives the world by perceiving one's sense-data, or something like that."
- David Chalmers
(Related: Perception, Sense, Theory, World)
"Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair."
- Gilbert K. Chesterton
(Related: Love, Religion, Theory)
"What has any poet to trust more than the feel of the thing? Theory concerns him only until he picks up his pen, and it begins to concern him again as soon as he lays it down."
- John Ciardi
(Related: Trust, Concern, Pen, Theory)
"I learnt the theory of movement, which I still teach sometimes. I was very, very ambitious to learn a skill."
- Diane Cilento
(Related: Skill, Theory)
"The first issue to be settled is whether socialism has a right to exist Are its allegations concerning the present system true? Is industry proceeding on a principle of fraud? I wish to test the power of recent economic theory to give an exact answer to this question."
- John Bates Clark
(Related: Power, First, Fraud, Present, Question, Right, Socialism, Theory)
"His theory was that non-fiction could be as artful as fiction."
- Gerald Clarke
(Related: Fiction, Theory)
"Every great batter works on the theory that the pitcher is more afraid of him than he is of the pitcher."
- Ty Cobb
(Related: Theory)
"If a philosophic theory is once ruled out of court, no one can tell when it will appear again."
- Morris Raphael Cohen
(Related: Court, Theory, Will)
"I have a theory about that, if you have to say something, if you have encourage for one second a prospective acting student - he should not go in to acting."
- Dabney Coleman
(Related: Acting, Theory)
"Christianity is not a theory or speculation, but a life; not a philosophy of life, but a life and a living process."
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(Related: Life, Christianity, Living, Philosophy, Theory)
"I have this theory that people in Hollywood don't read. They read 'Vanity Fair' and then consider themselves terribly well read. I think I can basically write about anybody without getting caught."
- Jackie Collins
(Related: People, Hollywood, Theory)
"First literature came to refer only to itself, the literary theory."
- Mason Cooley
(Related: First, Literary, Literature, Theory)
"They who have reasoned ignorantly, or who have aimed at effecting their personal ends by flattering the popular feeling, have boldly affirmed that 'one man is as good as another;' a maxim that is true in neither nature, revealed morals, nor political theory."
- James F. Cooper
(Related: Nature, Feeling, Man, Maxim, Morals, Popular, Theory)
"I have a theory that the secret of marital happiness is simple: drink in different pubs to your other half."
- Jilly Cooper
(Related: Happiness, Theory)
"I can easily conceive, most Holy Father, that as soon as some people learn that in this book which I have written concerning the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, I ascribe certain motions to the Earth, they will cry out at once that I and my theory should be rejected."
- Nicolaus Copernicus
(Related: Father, People, Earth, Theory, Will)
"I have a tendency to often share the point of view of the conspiracy theory."
- Marion Cotillard
(Related: Theory)
"I think that climatic changes have a natural causes according many geological data... I am very glad to sign the U.S. Senate's report of scientists against the theory of man-made global warming."
- Uberto Crescenti
(Related: Causes, Global warming, Man, Scientists, Senate, Theory)
"Beck said he didn't believe in the theory of a song coming through you as if you were an open vessel. I agree with him to a certain extent."
- Sheryl Crow
(Related: Open, Song, Theory)
"My object will be, first, to show by what connections the history of the fossil bones of land animals is linked to the theory of the earth and why they have a particular importance in this respect."
- George Cuvier
(Related: History, Animals, Earth, First, Importance, Land, Respect, Theory, Will)
"Why has not anyone seen that fossils alone gave birth to a theory about the formation of the earth, that without them, no one would have ever dreamed that there were successive epochs in the formation of the globe."
- Georges Cuvier
(Related: Earth, Theory)
"I never wanted to do the same kind of movies over and over anyway, so my theory on it all is I'm just gonna try and dodge the label and keep doing what I am doing."
- Matt Damon
(Related: Movies, Theory)
"If the Confederacy fails, there should be written on its tombstone: Died of a Theory."
- Jefferson Davis
(Related: Theory)
"The theory of evolution by cumulative natural selection is the only theory we know of that is in principle capable of explaining the existence of organized complexity."
- Richard Dawkins
(Related: Complexity, Evolution, Existence, Theory)
"Today the theory of evolution is about as much open to doubt as the theory that the earth goes round the sun."
- Richard Dawkins
(Related: Doubt, Earth, Evolution, Open, Sun, Theory, Today)
"A universe with a God would look quite different from a universe without one. A physics, a biology where there is a God is bound to look different. So the most basic claims of religion are scientific. Religion is a scientific theory."
- Richard Dawkins
(Related: Religion, God, Physics, Theory, Universe)
"I had become interested in economics, an interest that was transformed into a lifetime dedication when I met with the mathematical theory of general economic equilibrium."
- Gerard Debreu
(Related: Dedication, Economics, Interest, Theory)
"In the mid-'60s in Berkeley, the theory of measure spaces of economic agents became one of my main interests."
- Gerard Debreu
(Related: Measure, Theory)
"Some people wish above all to conform to the rules, I wish only to render what I can hear. There is no theory. You have only to listen. Pleasure is the law."
- Claude Debussy
(Related: People, Law, Pleasure, Rules, Theory)
"In this movement of colors I find the essence, which does not arise from a system, or an a priori theory."
- Robert Delaunay
(Related: Colors, Theory)
"Rational behavior requires theory. Reactive behavior requires only reflex action."
- W. Edwards Deming
(Related: Action, Behavior, Theory)
"Songwriting is different from music, although I don't deny now that it would be nice to have a little more background in music theory."
- Neil Diamond
(Related: Music, Now, Theory)
"Any theory intended to describe and analyze socio-historical reality cannot restrict itself to the human spirit and disregard the totality of human nature."
- Wilhelm Dilthey
(Related: Nature, Human nature, Reality, Spirit, Theory)
"Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory."
- Benjamin Disraeli
(Related: Life, Biography, Nothing, Theory)
"The theory of cultural bias... is the idea that a culture is based on a particular form of organization. It can't be transplanted except to another variant of that organization."
- Mary Douglas
(Related: Idea, Culture, Theory)
"They do not merely collect texts; they must also gather data about the context and the informant and, above all, write an analysis of the items based upon the course readings and lecture material on folklore theory and method."
- Alan Dundes
(Related: Theory)
"While gossip among women is universally ridiculed as low and trivial, gossip among men, especially if it is about women, is called theory, or idea, or fact."
- Andrea Dworkin
(Related: Women, Idea, Fact, Gossip, Theory)
"You know, some of the good part of blog theory was that blogs would be like diaries that the world could read. They would be spontaneous, whatever pops into your mind, as a diary would be."
- Gregg Easterbrook
(Related: Diaries, Mind, Theory, World)
"I hesitate to predict whether this theory is true. But if the general opinion of Mankind is optimistic then we're in for a period of extreme popularity for science fiction."
- David Eddings
(Related: Science, Extreme, Fiction, Mankind, Opinion, Popularity, Theory)
"If your theory is found to be against the second law of theromodynamics, I give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation."
- Arthur Eddington
(Related: Hope, Law, Nothing, Theory)
"It is also a good rule not to put overmuch confidence in the observational results that are put forward until they are confirmed by theory."
- Arthur Eddington
(Related: Confidence, Results, Theory)
"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is."
- Manfred Eigen
(Related: Difference, Practice, Theory)
"A theory has only the alternative of being right or wrong. A model has a third possibility: it may be right, but irrelevant."
- Manfred Eigen
(Related: Being, May, Right, Theory, Wrong)
"A theory can be proved by experiment; but no path leads from experiment to the birth of a theory."
- Manfred Eigen
(Related: Theory)
"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts."
- Albert Einstein
(Related: Change, Facts, Theory)
"I have just got a new theory of eternity."
- Albert Einstein
(Related: Eternity, Theory)
"There could be no fairer destiny for any physical theory than that it should point the way to a more comprehensive theory in which it lives on as a limiting case."
- Albert Einstein
(Related: Destiny, Theory)
"America traditionally represents the greatest possibility of someone's going from nothing to something. Why? In theory, if not practice, the government stays out of the way and lets individuals take risks and reap rewards or accept the consequences of failure. We call this capitalism - or, at least, we used to."
- Larry Elder
(Related: Government, Failure, Possibility, America, Capitalism, Consequences, Nothing, Practice, Theory)
"At the present day the crude theory of the sexual impulse held on one side, and the ignorant rejection of theory altogether on the other side, are beginning to be seen as both alike unjustified."
- Havelock Ellis
(Related: Beginning, Day, Present, Rejection, Theory)
"An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
(Related: Action, Theory, Worth)
"I thought it must be pure science fiction. But when I checked it out I found a lot of magazine articles that actually supported the theory behind the book which was incredible. That's when I decided to acquire the rights of the book and everything went from there."
- Roland Emmerich
(Related: Science, Thought, Fiction, Rights, Theory)
"Architecture doesn't come from theory. You don't think your way through a building."
- Arthur Erickson
(Related: Architecture, Building, Theory)
"See my father knew a lot about music, he played the piano and he would do theory and stuff like that, but I didn't learn anything from him, but I played that for him and he liked it a lot."
- John Fahey
(Related: Music, Father, Theory)
"I would say that, intellectually, Catholicism had no more impact on me than did social theory."
- Paul Farmer
(Related: Catholicism, Theory)
"In short, both experience and economic theory imply that the US could now t to a more competitive dollar without experiencing either increased inflation or decreased economic growth."
- Martin Feldstein
(Related: Experience, Growth, Inflation, Now, Theory)
"It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong."
- Richard P. Feynman
(Related: Theory, Wrong)
"Scientific views end in awe and mystery, lost at the edge in uncertainty, but they appear to be so deep and so impressive that the theory that it is all arranged as a stage for God to watch man's struggle for good and evil seems inadequate."
- Richard P. Feynman
(Related: God, Deep, End, Evil, Man, Mystery, Struggle, Theory, Uncertainty)
"I love it now that a large minority of people who are handicapped prefer to call themselves crippled. This is all part of the game, like queer theory."
- Leslie Fiedler
(Related: Love, People, Minority, Now, Theory)
"I think academics are infuriating. For every expert on Shakespeare there is another one to cancel his theory out. It drives you up the wall. I think the greatest form of finding out the truth is through fantasy."
- Joseph Fiennes
(Related: Truth, Fantasy, Shakespeare, Theory)
"Don't confuse hypothesis and theory. The former is a possible explanation; the latter, the correct one. The establishment of theory is the very purpose of science."
- Martin H. Fischer
(Related: Science, Purpose, Theory)
"The problem is that replacement of Quantum Mechanics by Quantum Field Theory is still very demanding."
- Martin Fleischmann
(Related: Theory)
"We completely reject the theory of evolution."
- John Ambrose Fleming
(Related: Evolution, Theory)
"The theory of evolution is totally inadequate to explain the origin and manifestation of the inorganic world."
- John Ambrose Fleming
(Related: Evolution, Theory, World)
"My theory is, if you can do comedy and you can be in a scene with someone like Brad Garrett and hold your own, you've really got a future in this business."
- Faith Ford
(Related: Business, Comedy, Future, Theory)
"The proposition that humans have mental characteristics wholly absent in non-humans is inconsistent with the theory of evolution."
- Gary L. Francione
(Related: Evolution, Theory)
"The world runs on individuals pursuing their self interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn't construct his theory under order from a, from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn't revolutionize the automobile industry that way."
- Milton Friedman
(Related: Government, Civilization, Order, Self, Theory, World)
"The Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention argues that no two countries that are both part of the same global supply chain will ever fight a war as long as they are each part of that supply chain."
- Thomas Friedman
(Related: War, Conflict, Countries, Fight, Prevention, Theory, Will)
"This success led my theoretical group to the chemical reactivity theory, extending more and more widely the range of compound and reactions that were discussed."
- Kenichi Fukui
(Related: Success, Theory)
"But the nature of my main work in chemistry can be better represented by more than 280 English publications, of which roughly 200 concern the theory of chemical reactions and related subjects."
- Kenichi Fukui
(Related: Nature, Work, Concern, English, Theory)
"The standard growth theory tells us that economic growth in per capita basis comes from mainly two sources: capital deepening and total factor productivity growth, or TFP growth."
- Toshihiko Fukui
(Related: Growth, Productivity, Theory)
"As the new endogenous growth theory suggests, TFP growth is closely related to accumulation of the intangible capitals, such as human capital and research and development."
- Toshihiko Fukui
(Related: Development, Growth, Research, Theory)
"My theory about Jack is that he's not a very good parent."
- Victor Garber
(Related: Theory)
"This is the problem for which revolutionary theory has yet to find the right solution, if there is one. The difficulty is that the economic interests of the two classes are antagonistic."
- Garet Garrett
(Related: Difficulty, Right, Solution, Theory)
"You cannot run a business, or anything else, on a theory."
- Harold S. Geneen
(Related: Business, Theory)
"You can't run a business or anything else on a theory."
- Harold S. Geneen
(Related: Business, Theory)
"My theory is, independent movies only work if you're willing to push the material and do something different."
- Balthazar Getty
(Related: Movies, Work, Theory)
"No theory is good unless it permits, not rest, but the greatest work. No theory is good except on condition that one use it to go on beyond."
- Andre Gide
(Related: Work, Rest, Theory)
"Although I know a lot of the previous shuttle flights, in theory, had their tasks laid out; but there were still some changes that came along for them."
- Linda M. Godwin
(Related: Theory)
"All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(Related: Life, Friend, Theory)
"It was a question of helping a man prepare in the way that suits him best. The theory is if you give a man responsibility for his own actions, then it is up to him to accept that responsibility."
- David Gower
(Related: Actions, Man, Question, Responsibility, Theory)
"The theory of founder effects does not explain how novel features like plumage traits arise."
- Peter R. Grant
(Related: Theory)
"Your candor is worth everything to your cause. It is refreshing to find a person with a new theory who frankly confesses that he finds difficulties, insurmountable, at least for the present."
- Asa Gray
(Related: Candor, Cause, Difficulties, Present, Theory, Worth)
"If the theory turns out to be right, that will be tremendously thick and tasty icing on the cake."
- Brian Greene
(Related: Right, Theory, Will)
"A unified theory would put us at the doorstep of a vast universe of things that we could finally explore with precision."
- Brian Greene
(Related: Theory, Universe)
"Given the devaluation of literature and of the study of foreign languages per se in the United States, as well as the preponderance of theory over text in graduate literature studies, creative writing programs keep literature courses populated."
- Marilyn Hacker
(Related: Literature, states, Study, Theory, United, Writing)
"Every theory of love, from Plato down, teaches that each individual loves in the other sex what he lacks in himself."
- G. Stanley Hall
(Related: Love, Sex, Theory)
"The end of science is not to prove a theory, but to improve mankind."
- Manly Hall
(Related: Science, End, Mankind, Theory)
"My theory is if you have a religion, it's a good one. Because some people don't have any at all."
- Tom T. Hall
(Related: Religion, People, Theory)
"Being used to scientific terminology and theory it was always natural for me to push this stuff into songs."
- Peter Hammill
(Related: Being, Songs, Theory)
"You know very well that unless you're a scientist, it's much more important for a theory to be shapely, than for it to be true."
- Christopher Hampton
(Related: Theory)
"I worked hard learning harmony and theory when I was growing up in Chicago in the 1920s."
- Lionel Hampton
(Related: Chicago, Growing up, Harmony, Learning, Theory)
"Every theory presented as a scientific concept is just that; it's a theory that tries to explain more about the world than previous theories have done. It is open to being challenged and to being proven incorrect."
- Marvin Harris
(Related: Being, Open, Theories, Theory, World)
"I'm a games and theory kind of guy. I love puzzles, so it was fun dissecting Shakespeare's prose."
- Neil Patrick Harris
(Related: Love, Fun, Games, Prose, Shakespeare, Theory)
"There's a statistical theory that if you gave a million monkeys typewriters and set them to work, they'd eventually come up with the complete works of Shakespeare. Thanks to the Internet, we now know this isn't true."
- Ian Hart
(Related: Work, Internet, Now, Shakespeare, Theory)
"If we do discover a complete theory, it should be in time understandable in broad principle by everyone. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people be able to take part in the discussion of why we and the universe exist."
- Stephen Hawking
(Related: Time, People, Scientists, Theory, Universe)
"Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?"
- Stephen Hawking
(Related: Fire, Rules, Theory, Universe)
"You can't imagine how much detail we know about brains. There were 28,000 people who went to the neuroscience conference this year, and every one of them is doing research in brains. A lot of data. But there's no theory. There's a little, wimpy box on top there."
- Jeff Hawkins
(Related: People, Detail, Research, Theory)
"Why should we, however, in economics, have to plead ignorance of the sort of facts on which, in the case of a physical theory, a scientist would certainly be expected to give precise information?"
- Friedrich August von Hayek
(Related: Economics, Facts, Ignorance, Information, Theory)
"Some men have a silly theory about beautiful women - that somewhere along the line they'll turn into a monster. That movie gave them a chance to watch it happen."
- Salma Hayek
(Related: Men, Women, Chance, Silly, Theory)
"Never worry about theory as long as the machinery does what it's supposed to do."
- Robert A. Heinlein
(Related: Theory, Worry)
"A mathematical theory is not to be considered complete until you have made it so clear that you can explain it to the first man whom you meet on the street."
- David Hilbert
(Related: First, Man, Theory)
"The further a mathematical theory is developed, the more harmoniously and uniformly does its construction proceed, and unsuspected relations are disclosed between hitherto separated branches of the science."
- David Hilbert
(Related: Science, Theory)
"You don't attack the grunts of Vietnam; you blame the theory behind the war. Nobody who fought in that war was at fault. It was the war itself that was at fault. It's the same thing with psychotherapy."
- James Hillman
(Related: War, Blame, Fault, Theory, Vietnam)
"Psychotherapy theory turns it all on you: you are the one who is wrong. If a kid is having trouble or is discouraged, the problem is not just inside the kid; it's also in the system, the society."
- James Hillman
(Related: Society, Theory, Trouble, Wrong)
"The Popish theory, which assumes that Christ, the Apostles and believers, constituted the Church while our Saviour was on earth, and this organization was designed to be perpetual."
- Charles Hodge
(Related: Church, Christ, Earth, Theory)
"The Independent or Congregational theory includes two principles; first, that the governing and executive power in the Church is in the brotherhood; and secondly, that the Church organization is complete in each worshipping assembly, which is independent of every other."
- Charles Hodge
(Related: Power, Church, Brotherhood, First, Principles, Theory)
"A lot of times when I sit down with the other comics and try to talk theory, they say I'm being too serious."
- Joel Hodgson
(Related: Being, Talk, Theory)
"Even for practical purposes theory generally turns out the most important thing in the end."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
(Related: End, Theory)
"A young man is a theory, an old man is a fact."
- Edgar Watson Howe
(Related: Fact, Man, Old, Theory)
"A theory is no more like a fact than a photograph is like a person."
- Edward W. Howe
(Related: Fact, Theory)
"Every theory is a self-fulfilling prophecy that orders experience into the framework it provides."
- Ruth Hubbard
(Related: Experience, Prophecy, Self, Theory)
"According to the now almost universally accepted theory, all the races of mankind had a common origin."
- Ellsworth Huntington
(Related: Mankind, Now, Theory)
"Europe is so well gardened that it resembles a work of art, a scientific theory, a neat metaphysical system. Man has re-created Europe in his own image."
- Aldous Huxley
(Related: Work, Art, Europe, Man, Theory)
"Science is organized common sense where many a beautiful theory was killed by an ugly fact."
- Thomas Huxley
(Related: Science, Common sense, Fact, Theory, Ugly)
"The struggle for existence holds as much in the intellectual as in the physical world. A theory is a species of thinking, and its right to exist is coextensive with its power of resisting extinction by its rivals."
- Thomas Huxley
(Related: Power, Existence, Right, Struggle, Theory, Thinking, World)
"I just never subscribed to the theory that at age 55, you fall off the face of the earth on the Tour. I always felt that was too young of an age for that."
- Hale Irwin
(Related: Age, Earth, Theory)
"The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory."
- Thomas Jefferson
(Related: Imagination, Theory)
"My theory has always been, that if we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter, than the gloom of despair."
- Thomas Jefferson
(Related: Dream, Hope, Despair, Theory)
"I have this theory- that if we're told we're bad, then that's the only ideal we'll ever have."
- Jewel
(Related: Theory)
"I have a theory that the only original things we ever do are mistakes."
- Billy Joel
(Related: Mistakes, Theory)
"I have a theory because I was being beaten up a lot by people outside of school, it was almost like if I could make myself sick enough they'd take sympathy on me."
- Daniel Johns
(Related: Sympathy, People, Being, School, Theory)
"The monopoly of science in the realm of knowledge explains why evolutionary biologists do not find it meaningful to address the question whether the Darwinian theory is true."
- Phillip E. Johnson
(Related: Science, Knowledge, Question, Theory)
"First, Darwinian theory tells us how a certain amount of diversity in life forms can develop once we have various types of complex living organisms already in existence."
- Phillip E. Johnson
(Related: Life, Diversity, Existence, First, Living, Theory)
"All theory is against freedom of the will; all experience for it."
- Samuel Johnson
(Related: Experience, Freedom, Theory, Will)
"It's easy to get next to music theory, especially between your peers and music classes and so forth. You just pay attention. I had a good ear, so I realized that printed music was just about reminding you what to play."
- Quincy Jones
(Related: Music, Attention, Play, Theory)
"Believing that the power to destroy belongs to the Creator alone I affirm... that any theory which, when carried out, demands the annihilation of force, is necessarily erroneous."
- James Prescott Joule
(Related: Power, Force, Theory)
"In theory there is a possibility of perfect happiness: To believe in the indestructible element within one, and not to strive towards it."
- Franz Kafka
(Related: Possibility, Theory)
"Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play."
- Immanuel Kant
(Related: Experience, Blind, Play, Theory)
"Whichever theory we adopt to give a rational explanation of human existence, that theory must take into account and explain the mental nature we see at work in all modern communities."
- Arthur Keith
(Related: Nature, Work, Existence, Theory)
"Postman is a media analyst and his theory is that television doesn't influence our culture, but that it is our culture and the presidency and anything that relies on television."
- Val Kilmer
(Related: Culture, Influence, Media, Presidency, Television, Theory)
"I had some hesitations about philosophy because, if you worked out a philosophical theory, it was hard to know whether you were going to be able to prove it or whether other theories had just as good a claim on belief."
- Stephen Cole Kleene
(Related: Belief, Philosophy, Theories, Theory)
"The greatest mathematicians, as Archimedes, Newton, and Gauss, always united theory and applications in equal measure."
- Felix Klein
(Related: Mathematicians, Measure, Theory, United)
"Statistics: the mathematical theory of ignorance."
- Morris Kline
(Related: Ignorance, Theory)
"What I always try to do is to respond to the song; I've always rebelled against theory."
- Mark Knopfler
(Related: Song, Theory)
"You buy any book on color theory today, and it's just complete poppycock. Everybody comes out of school painting pink, purple and green. The whole damn cartoon industry has pink purple and green on their mind."
- John Kricfalusi
(Related: Mind, Painting, School, Theory, Today)
"It really is a nice theory. The only defect I think it has is probably common to all philosophical theories. It's wrong."
- Saul Kripke
(Related: Theories, Theory, Wrong)
"Normal science does not aim at novelties of fact or theory and, when successful, finds none."
- Thomas Kuhn
(Related: Science, Successful, Fact, Theory)
"Freud was a hero. He descended to the Underworld and met there stark terrors. He carried with him his theory as a Medusa's head which turned these terrors to stone."
- R. D. Laing
(Related: Theory)
"Blind commitment to a theory is not an intellectual virtue: it is an intellectual crime."
- Imre Lakatos
(Related: Blind, Commitment, Crime, Theory)
"If even in science there is no a way of judging a theory but by assessing the number, faith and vocal energy of its supporters, then this must be even more so in the social sciences: truth lies in power."
- Imre Lakatos
(Related: Faith, Power, Science, Truth, Energy, Lies, Theory)
"Indeed, this epistemological theory of the relation between theory and experiment differs sharply from the epistemological theory of naive falsificationism."
- Imre Lakatos
(Related: Theory)
"The classical example of a successful research programme is Newton's gravitational theory: possibly the most successful research programme ever."
- Imre Lakatos
(Related: Successful, Example, Research)
"There is no falsification before the emergence of a better theory."
- Imre Lakatos
(Related: Theory)
"Mr. DeMille's theory of sexual difference was that marriage is an artificial state for women. The want to be taken, ruled, raped. That was his theory."
- Hedy Lamarr
(Related: Marriage, Women, Difference, State, Theory, Want)
"My theory is to enjoy life, but the practice is against it."
- Charles Lamb
(Related: Life, Practice, Theory)
"The human species, according to the best theory I can form of it, is composed of two distinct races, the men who borrow and the men who lend."
- Charles Lamb
(Related: Men, Theory)
"THE rich possess ample means to realize any theory they may chuse to adopt in the education of their children, regardless of the cost; but it is not so with him whose Subsistence is derived from industry."
- Joseph Lancaster
(Related: Education, Children, May, Theory)
"Essential to the theory of evolution is the premise that everything has come into being by itself."
- Walter Lang
(Related: Being, Evolution, Theory)
"Internationalism is a community theory of society which is founded on economic, spiritual, and biological facts. It maintains that respect for a healthy development of human society and of world civilization requires that mankind be organized internationally."
- Christian Lous Lange
(Related: Society, Civilization, Development, Community, Facts, Mankind, Respect, Spiritual, Theory, World)
"Internationalism is a social and political theory, a certain concept of how human society ought to be organized, and in particular a concept of how the nations ought to organize their mutual relations."
- Christian Lous Lange
(Related: Society, Nations, Theory)
"My theory of hitting was just to watch the ball as it came in and hit it."
- Tommy Lasorda
(Related: Theory)
"If diffraction or interference phenomena were to be sought it was therefore necessary, in accordance with the basic principles of wave theory, to select for the test arrangement far smaller decisive dimensions than those employed in corresponding tests with visible light."
- Max von Laue
(Related: Light, Principles, Tests, Theory)
"Notwithstanding these major arguments the wave theory initially did not meet with complete acceptance."
- Max von Laue
(Related: Acceptance, Arguments, Theory)
"But one did not do feminist theory, as such, in those days, not only because male academic discourse did not recognize such a term, but especially because the women's movement did not either."
- Teresa de Lauretis
(Related: Women, Theory)
"The state of the world, of course, is constantly changing, and so is theory."
- Teresa de Lauretis
(Related: State, Theory, World)
"I think about the cosmic snowball theory. A few million years from now the sun will burn out and lose its gravitational pull. The earth will turn into a giant snowball and be hurled through space. When that happens it won't matter if I get this guy out."
- Bill Lee
(Related: Earth, Now, Space, Sun, Theory, Will, Years)
"Men act like brutes in so far as the sequences of their perceptions arise through the principle of memory only, like those empirical physicians who have mere practice without theory."
- Gottfried Leibniz
(Related: Men, Act, Memory, Perceptions, Physicians, Practice, Theory)
"Without a revolutionary theory there cannot be a revolutionary movement."
- Vladimir Lenin
(Related: Theory)
"Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement."
- Vladimir Lenin
(Related: Theory)
"Many, many, many small moves of many kinds can bring a way to manage change. The theory can come later."
- Flora Lewis
(Related: Change, Theory)
"If you start any large theory, such as quantum mechanics, plate tectonics, evolution, it takes about 40 years for mainstream science to come around. Gaia has been going for only 30 years or so."
- James Lovelock
(Related: Science, Evolution, Theory, Years)
"Agricultural practice served Darwin as the material basis for the elaboration of his theory of Evolution, which explained the natural causation of the adaptation we see in the structure of the organic world. That was a great advance in the knowledge of living nature."
- Trofim Lysenko
(Related: Nature, Knowledge, Evolution, Living, Practice, Theory, World)
"A major fault, for example, is the fact that, along with the materialist principle, Darwin introduced into his theory of evolution reactionary Malthusian ideas."
- Trofim Lysenko
(Related: Ideas, Evolution, Example, Fact, Fault, Theory)
"The classics of Marxism, while fully appreciating the significance of the Darwinian theory, pointed out the errors of which Darwin was guilty. Darwin's theory, though unquestionably materialist in its main features, is not free from some serious errors."
- Trofim Lysenko
(Related: Errors, Marxism, Theory)
"The knowledge of the theory of logic has no tendency whatever to make men good reasoners."
- Thomas B. Macaulay
(Related: Men, Knowledge, Logic, Theory)
"Postmodernism is an academic theory, originating in academia with an academic elite, not in the world of women and men, where feminist theory is rooted."
- Catharine MacKinnon
(Related: Women, Theory, World)
"My theory is that I decided to be a writer when I was about seven, but of course it is not as simple as that. Like most writers, I had to work at other things to earn a living and wrote mainly in the evenings, often very late at night, for many years."
- Margaret Mahy
(Related: Work, Living, Night, Theory, Writer, Writers, Years)
"It is an acknowledged truth in philosophy that a just theory will always be confirmed by experiment."
- Thomas Malthus
(Related: Truth, Philosophy, Theory, Will)
"Each pursues his own theory, little solicitous to correct or improve it by an attention to what is advanced by his opponents."
- Thomas Malthus
(Related: Attention, Opponents, Theory)
"I think also of my colleagues in elementary particle theory in many lands, and feel that in some measure I am here as a representative of our small, informal, international fraternity."
- Murray Gell Mann
(Related: Measure, Theory)
"The Freudian theory is one of the most important foundation stones for an edifice to be built by future generations, the dwelling of a freer and wiser humanity."
- Thomas Mann
(Related: Future, Generations, Humanity, Theory)
"My theory about creativity is that the more money one has, the more creative one can be."
- Robert Mapplethorpe
(Related: Money, Creativity, Theory)
"Nevertheless, the realization that breaking a pencil point would have far less disastrous consequences played little or no role, I believe, in this decision to explore theory!"
- Rudolph A. Marcus
(Related: Decision, Consequences)
"Being exposed to theory, stimulated by a basic love of concepts and mathematics, was a marvelous experience."
- Rudolph A. Marcus
(Related: Experience, Love, Being, Mathematics, Theory)
"The theory of Communism may be summed up in one sentence: Abolish all private property."
- Karl Marx
(Related: Communism, May, Property, Theory)
"Classic economic theory, based as it is on an inadequate theory of human motivation, could be revolutionized by accepting the reality of higher human needs, including the impulse to self actualization and the love for the highest values."
- Abraham Maslow
(Related: Love, Motivation, Values, Needs, Reality, Self, Theory)
"Because of the Turing completeness theory, everything one Turing-complete language can do can theoretically be done by another Turing-complete language, but at a different cost. You can do everything in assembler, but no one wants to program in assembler anymore."
- Yukihiro Matsumoto
(Related: Language, Theory)
"Our theory is, if you need the user to tell you what you're selling, then you don't know what you're selling, and it's probably not going to be a good experience."
- Marissa Mayer
(Related: Experience, Selling, Theory)
"The major novelty of my theory was its claim that the most rapid evolutionary change does not occur in widespread, populous species, as claimed by Most geneticists, but in small founder populations."
- Ernst Mayr
(Related: Change, Novelty, Theory)
"The theory of rights enables us to rise and overthrow obstacles, but not to found a strong and lasting accord between all the elements which compose the nation."
- Giuseppe Mazzini
(Related: Rights, Nation, Obstacles, Theory)
"Never abandon a theory that explains something until you have a theory that explains more."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Theory)
"We were environmentalists of the Teddy Roosevelt theory. We believed in separation of church and state. We believed in the independence of the Supreme Court not being subject to politicians."
- Pete McCloskey
(Related: Church, Being, Court, Independence, Politicians, Separation, State, Theory)
"There are a lot of people out there who are just waiting that we fail. They brought up the theory that we're one-hit wonders and they want us to fall flat on our noses, just to prove them right."
- Mark McGrath
(Related: People, Noses, Right, Theory, Waiting, Want, Wonders)
"Most of the stuff I learned to play, I learned in high school. I had a band in high school, a jazz-fusion thing, and I was the keyboard player. I was interested in how the instruments worked and the theory behind playing with them."
- Brian McKnight
(Related: Jazz, Play, School, Theory)
"My job was to teach the whole corpus of economic theory, but there were two subjects in which I was especially interested, namely, the economics of mass unemployment and international economics."
- James Meade
(Related: Economics, Job, Theory, Unemployment)
"My interest in economics has always been in the whole corpus of economic theory, the interrelationships between the various fields of theory and their relevance for the formulation of economic policy."
- James Meade
(Related: Policy, Economics, Interest, Theory)
"After developing a primitive theory (1968) I therefore did not pursue this subject. However, the work was taken up by others and in 1974 the first experiments were done in the ISR."
- Simon van der Meer
(Related: Work, First, Theory)
"We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart."
- H. L. Mencken
(Related: Religion, Wife, Children, Respect, Sense, Theory)
"The theory seems to be that as long as a man is a failure he is one of God's children, but that as soon as he succeeds he is taken over by the Devil."
- H. L. Mencken
(Related: God, Failure, Children, Devil, Man, Theory)
"A professor must have a theory as a dog must have fleas."
- H. L. Mencken
(Related: Fleas, Theory)
"Morality is the theory that every human act must be either right or wrong, and that 99 % of them are wrong."
- H. L. Mencken
(Related: Morality, Act, Right, Theory, Wrong)
"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."
- H. L. Mencken
(Related: People, Democracy, Theory, Want)
"The principal axiom in their theory was: Everything can be proved, and everything can be disproved; and in the process, one must profit as much from the folly of others, and from his own superiority, as he can."
- Moses Mendelssohn
(Related: Superiority, Folly, Profit, Theory)
"We don't regard any scientific theory as the absolute truth."
- Kenneth Miller
(Related: Truth, Theory)
"There is no controversy within science over the core proposition of evolutionary theory."
- Kenneth Miller
(Related: Science, Controversy, Theory)
"By means of microscopic observation and astronomical projection the lotus flower can become the foundation for an entire theory of the universe and an agent whereby we may perceive Truth."
- Yukio Mishima
(Related: Truth, May, Observation, Theory, Universe)
"I don't like writing essays or theory."
- Adrian Mitchell
(Related: Theory, Writing)
"Meanwhile, the originator of a theory may have a very lonely time, especially if his colleagues find his views of nature unfamiliar, and difficult to appreciate."
- Peter D. Mitchell
(Related: Nature, Time, Lonely, May, Theory)
"Moreover, in the experimental sciences, the scientific fraternity must test a new theory to destruction, if possible."
- Peter D. Mitchell
(Related: Destruction, Theory)
"The final outcome cannot be known, either to the originator of a new theory, or to his colleagues and critics, who are bent on falsifying it. Thus, the scientific innovator may feel all the more lonely and uncertain."
- Peter D. Mitchell
(Related: Lonely, May, Theory)
"We have confirmed something we only knew in theory, namely that revolution, in which uncontrolled and uncontrollable forces operate imperiously, is blind and destructive, grandiose and cruel."
- Frederica Montseny
(Related: Blind, Revolution, Theory)
"Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy."
- Benito Mussolini
(Related: Democracy, Practice, Theory)
"My theory is that all of Scottish cuisine is based on a dare."
- Mike Myers
(Related: Theory)
"A theory must be tempered with reality."
- Jawaharlal Nehru
(Related: Reality, Theory)
"The Theory of Groups is a branch of mathematics in which one does something to something and then compares the result with the result obtained from doing the same thing to something else, or something else to the same thing."
- James Newman
(Related: Mathematics, Result, Theory)
"I definitely don't subscribe to the theory that more instruments, or more vocal tracks, harmony, or double tracking the voice, is a good thing. People do their early albums very stripped down, then each album becomes bloated."
- Joanna Newsom
(Related: People, Harmony, Theory, Voice)
"I never had a policy about marriage. I got married very young in life and I always think in all relationships, I've always thought that it's counterproductive to have a theory on that."
- Jack Nicholson
(Related: Life, Marriage, Thought, Policy, Relationships, Theory)
"I'm a firm believer that in the theory that people only do their best at things they truly enjoy. It is difficult to excel at something you don't enjoy."
- Jack Nicklaus
(Related: People, Theory)
"It was not until I got my first job, at the University of Washington in Seattle, and began playing chess with Don Gordon, a brilliant young theorist, that I learned economic theory."
- Douglass North
(Related: Chess, First, Job, Theory, University, Washington)
"The scientists often have more unfettered imaginations than current philosophers do. Relativity theory came as a complete surprise to philosophers, and so did quantum mechanics, and so did other things."
- Robert Nozick
(Related: Relativity, Scientists, Theory)
"I have a theory that the best ads come from personal experience. Some of the good ones I have done have really come out of the real experience of my life, and somehow this has come over as true and valid and persuasive."
- David Ogilvy
(Related: Experience, Life, Theory)
"That is why one day I said my game will be like the Pythagorean Theorem - hard to figure out. A lot of people really don't know the Pythagorean Theory. They don't make them like me anymore. They don't want to make them like that anymore."
- Shaquille O'Neal
(Related: People, Day, Theory, Want, Will)
"The situation of the Old Left was the theory of Socialist Realism, etc. It seemed pointless to argue. We stayed carefully away from people who wrote for the New Masses."
- George Oppen
(Related: People, Old, Realism, Theory)
"In the first quarter of the nineteenth century the experimental proof for the interdependence of the composition and properties of chemical compounds resulted in the theory that they are mutually related, so that like composition governs like properties, and conversely."
- Wilhelm Ostwald
(Related: First, Proof, Theory)
"In a certain sense, aspects of my solo playing were developed in order to test the theory about how long particular elements could be, as parts of so-called free improvisations."
- Evan Parker
(Related: Order, Sense, Theory)
"Theory not only formulates what we know but also tells us what we want to know, that is, the questions to which an answer is needed."
- Talcott Parsons
(Related: Questions, Theory, Want)
"The implications of these considerations justify the statement that all empirically verifiable knowledge even the commonsense knowledge of everyday life - involves implicitly, if not explicitly, systematic theory in this sense."
- Talcott Parsons
(Related: Life, Knowledge, Sense, Theory)
"In so far as such a theory is empirically correct it will also tell us what empirical facts it should be possible to observe in a given set of circumstances."
- Talcott Parsons
(Related: Circumstances, Facts, Theory, Will)
"It is probably safe to say that all the changes of factual knowledge which have led to the relativity theory, resulting in a very great theoretical development, are completely trivial from any point of view except their relevance to the structure of a theoretical system."
- Talcott Parsons
(Related: Knowledge, Development, Relativity, Theory)
"But the scientific importance of a change in knowledge of fact consists precisely in j its having consequences for a system of theory."
- Talcott Parsons
(Related: Change, Knowledge, Consequences, Fact, Importance, Theory)
"But the fact a person denies that he is theorising is no reason for taking him at his word and failing to investigate what implicit theory is involved in his statements."
- Talcott Parsons
(Related: Fact, Reason, Theory, Word)
"Theory is splendid but until put into practice, it is valueless."
- James Cash Penney
(Related: Practice, Theory)
"The basic theory in twistor theory is not to add extra dimensions."
- Roger Penrose
(Related: Theory)
"Well, gauge theory is very fundamental to our understanding of physical forces these days. But they are also dependent on a mathematical idea, which has been around for longer than gauge theory has."
- Roger Penrose
(Related: Idea, Theory, Understanding)
"In the book, I make the point that here we have string theory and here we have twistor theory and we don't know if either one of them is the right approach to nature."
- Roger Penrose
(Related: Nature, Right, Theory)
"As you say, the way string theory requires all these extra dimensions and this comes from certain consistency requirements about how string should behave and so on."
- Roger Penrose
(Related: Consistency, Theory)
"Today's practicality is often no more than the accepted form of yesterday's theory."
- Kenneth L. Pike
(Related: Practicality, Theory, Today, Yesterday)
"Verbal and nonverbal activity is a unified whole, and theory and methodology should be organized or created to treat it as such."
- Kenneth L. Pike
(Related: Theory)
"I wanted a theory that would allow one to live outside the office with the same philosophy one uses inside it."
- Kenneth L. Pike
(Related: Office, Philosophy, Theory)
"So long as we use a certain language, all questions that we can ask will have to be formulated in it and will thereby confirm the theory of the universe which is implied in the vocabulary and structure of the language."
- Michael Polanyi
(Related: Language, Questions, Theory, Universe, Vocabulary, Will)
"Quantum theory also tells us that the world is not simply objective; somehow it's something more subtle than that. In some sense it is veiled from us, but it has a structure that we can understand."
- John Polkinghorne
(Related: Sense, Theory, World)
"The oldest theory of contract is I think negative."
- Frederick Pollock
(Related: Negative, Theory)
"Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve."
- Karl Popper
(Related: Theory)
"Well, in The Chosen, Danny Saunders, from the heart of his religious reading of the world, encounters an element in the very heart of the secular readings of the world - Freudian psychoanalytic theory."
- Chaim Potok
(Related: Heart, Reading, Religious, Theory, World)
"Science is not about control. It is about cultivating a perpetual condition of wonder in the face of something that forever grows one step richer and subtler than our latest theory about it. It is about reverence, not mastery."
- Richard Powers
(Related: Science, Control, Theory, Wonder)
"In theory one is aware that the earth revolves, but in practice one does not perceive it, the ground upon which one treads seems not to move, and one can live undisturbed. So it is with Time in one's life."
- Marcel Proust
(Related: Life, Time, Earth, Practice, Theory)
"Here is the real domino theory - gay man to gay man, bisexual man to straight woman, addict mother to newborn baby, they all fall down and someday it will come to you."
- Anna Quindlen
(Related: Mother, Baby, Gay, Man, Theory, Will, Woman)
"Scientific theory is a contrived foothold in the chaos of living phenomena."
- Wilhelm Reich
(Related: Chaos, Living, Theory)
"I call it like the domino theory of reality. If you can go one step at a time and it seems to make sense, you can then take your audience into an area that is relatively outlandish."
- Ivan Reitman
(Related: Time, Reality, Sense, Theory)
"Their films would probably be better if they'd seen a few more films, which runs counter to this idiotic theory that you run the risk of being influenced if you see too much."
- Jacques Rivette
(Related: Being, Risk, Theory)
"My favorite laser disk ever was the laser disk for The Graduate, which had a commentary track that wasn't even the filmmakers, it was a professor, some film criticism guy who just happen to be this amazing commentator who went off into the whole theory of comedy."
- Jay Roach
(Related: Comedy, Criticism, Favorite, Film, Theory)
"There's the theory that nudity doesn't really make something sexy; the characters and their relationship make it sexy."
- Tim Robbins
(Related: Nudity, Theory)
"If there was ever any truth to the trickle-down theory, the only evidence of it I've ever seen was in that period of 1960 to 1965. All of sudden they were handing out major label recording contracts like they were coming in Cracker Jack boxes."
- Dave Van Ronk
(Related: Truth, Theory)
"The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life."
- Theodore Roosevelt
(Related: Life, Love, Peace, America, Duty, Living, Prosperity, Safety, Theory, Will)
"The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline luggage."
- Mark Russell
(Related: Theory)
"My present work concerns the problems connected with the theory of elementary particles, the theory of gravitation and cosmology and I shall be glad if I can manage to make some contribution to these important branches of science."
- Andrei Sakharov
(Related: Science, Work, Present, Problems, Theory)
"He had a theory, Walt did, that the religious life, and all the agony that goes with it, is just something God sics on people who have the gall to accuse Him of having created an ugly world."
- J. D. Salinger
(Related: God, Life, People, Religious, Theory, Ugly, World)
"Funeral by funeral, theory advances."
- Paul Samuelson
(Related: Theory)
"I chose to deal with the science of cryptography. Cryptography began in mathematics. Codes were developed, even from Caesar's time, based on number theory and mathematical principles. I decided to use those principles and designed a work that is encoded."
- James Sanborn
(Related: Science, Work, Time, Mathematics, Principles, Theory)
"Theory helps us to bear our ignorance of facts."
- George Santayana
(Related: Facts, Ignorance, Theory)
"Here is my theory on this one. If you write things down, if there is a mystery and you try and explain it, once you've written it down for permanent, in due time, it'll be proven stupid."
- Joey Santiago
(Related: Time, Mystery, Theory)
"What we should be teaching are the problems and holes and I think there are legitimate problems and holes in the theory of evolution. And what we need to do is to present those fairly from a scientific point of view. And we should lay out areas in which the evidence supports evolution and the areas in the evidence that does not."
- Rick Santorum
(Related: Evolution, Present, Problems, Teaching, Theory)
"The worst censors are those prohibiting criticism of the theory of evolution in the classroom."
- Phyllis Schlafly
(Related: Classroom, Criticism, Evolution, Theory)
"The mathematical framework of quantum theory has passed countless successful tests and is now universally accepted as a consistent and accurate description of all atomic phenomena."
- Erwin Schrodinger
(Related: Successful, Now, Tests, Theory)
"They've discovered that, where all the other galaxies are moving in one direction, ours is going in another. Now, the Big Bang theory says that we're all moving outward."
- Dwight Schultz
(Related: Direction, Now, Theory)
"In baseball, my theory is to strive for consistency, not to worry about the numbers. If you dwell on statistics you get shortsighted, if you aim for consistency, the numbers will be there at the end."
- Tom Seaver
(Related: Consistency, Baseball, End, Numbers, Statistics, Theory, Will, Worry)
"I was a teacher for a long time. I taught at a community college: voice, theory, humanities. And nowadays, music education is a dying thing. Funding is being cut more and more and more."
- Jon Secada
(Related: Education, Music, Time, Being, Community, Dying, Theory, Voice)
"They didn't accept me theory - not a theory, but just a thought I had about this character. I noticed that this man only exists when the boy comes into the grocery."
- Omar Sharif
(Related: Thought, Character, Man, Theory)
"In theory it may seem all right to some, but when it comes to being made the instrument of the Lord's vengeance, I myself don't like it."
- Robert Gould Shaw
(Related: Being, May, Right, Theory, Vengeance)
"I do not believe in censorship, but I believe we already have censorship in what is called marketing theory, namely the only information we get in mainstream media is for profit."
- Sam Sheppard
(Related: Censorship, Information, Marketing, Media, Profit, Theory)
"The fact - not theory - that evolution has occurred and the Darwinian theory as to how it occurred have become so confused in popular opinion that the distinction must be stressed."
- George G. Simpson
(Related: Evolution, Fact, Opinion, Popular, Theory)
"And it really began with Einstein. We attended his lectures. Now the theory of relativity remained - and still remains - only a theory. It has not been proven. But it suggested a completely different picture of the physical world."
- Douglas Sirk
(Related: Now, Relativity, Theory, World)
"I have this theory that the likeability question comes up so much more with female characters created by female authors than it does with male characters and male authors."
- Curtis Sittenfeld
(Related: Question, Theory)
"It is disturbing to discover in oneself these curious revelations of the validity of the Darwinian theory. If it is true that we have sprung from the ape, there are occasions when my own spring appears not to have been very far."
- Cornelia Otis Skinner
(Related: Spring, Theory, Validity)
"Practical wisdom is only to be learned in the school of experience. Precepts and instruction are useful so far as they go, but, without the discipline of real life, they remain of the nature of theory only."
- Samuel Smiles
(Related: Nature, Wisdom, Experience, Life, Discipline, School, Theory)
"The theory that can absorb the greatest number of facts, and persist in doing so, generation after generation, through all changes of opinion and detail, is the one that must rule all observation."
- Adam Smith
(Related: Detail, Facts, Observation, Opinion, Theory)
"There is a gulf between the high value Americans put on life in theory and its cheapness in practice."
- Elizabeth Joan Smith
(Related: Life, Americans, Practice, Theory, Value)
"Our concern, however, is with slavery as it is, and not with any theory of it."
- Gerrit Smith
(Related: Concern, Slavery, Theory)
"An argument fatal to the communist theory, is suggested by the fact, that a desire for property is one of the elements of our nature."
- Herbert Spencer
(Related: Nature, Argument, Desire, Fact, Property, Theory)
"I joined the Army and was sent to the MIT radiation laboratory after a few months of introduction to electromagnetic wave theory in a special course, given for Army personnel at the University of Chicago."
- Jack Steinberger
(Related: Army, Chicago, Months, Theory, University)
"The three parts of the theory are analytical ability, the ability to analyze things to judge, to criticize. Creative, the ability to create, to invent and discover and practical, the ability to apply and use what you know."
- Robert Sternberg
(Related: Ability, Theory)
"When a torrent sweeps a man against a boulder, you must expect him to scream, and you need not be surprised if the scream is sometimes a theory."
- Robert Louis Stevenson
(Related: Man, Theory)
"I started working and publishing in price theory by 1938."
- George Stigler
(Related: Publishing, Theory)
"Even before I came to Chicago, I had gotten interested in the existence of dispersion of prices under conditions which economic theory said would yield a single price."
- George Stigler
(Related: Chicago, Existence, Theory, Yield)
"But we did conclude that Ray had actually killed Dr. King pursuant to his theory that he was going to be able to get hold of that money. He had learned of this offer through his ties in the Missouri State Penitentiary."
- Louis Stokes
(Related: Money, State, Theory)
"A feeble execution is but another phrase for a bad execution; and a government ill executed, whatever may be its theory, must, in practice, be a bad government."
- Joseph Story
(Related: Government, Execution, May, Practice, Theory)
"Vietnam was a lie but at least there was a political agenda. It was the domino theory. Iraq is about nothing but George Bush's ego laced with imperialist ambitions. And it was helped by your government."
- Donald Sutherland
(Related: Government, Lie, Ego, Iraq, Nothing, Theory, Vietnam)
"Evolution is a bankrupt speculative philosophy, not a scientific fact. Only a spiritually bankrupt society could ever believe it. Only atheists could accept this Satanic theory."
- Jimmy Swaggart
(Related: Society, Evolution, Fact, Philosophy, Theory)
"I know that a good many champions have entertained the thought that the more they discourage youngsters, the longer they would reign. However, this theory never impressed me, and I always made it a point to give youths the benefit of my experience in bicycle racing."
- Major Taylor
(Related: Experience, Thought, Racing, Theory)
"I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours."
- Hunter S. Thompson
(Related: Truth, Theory)
"Whether the ice caps melt, or expand - whatever happens - the anthropogenic global warming theorists claim it confirms their theory. A perfect example of a pseudo-science like astrology."
- Frank Tipler
(Related: Astrology, Example, Global warming, Theory)
"The crisis triggered a fertile period of scientific ferment and revolution in economic theory."
- James Tobin
(Related: Crisis, Revolution, Theory)
"At the time, my personal research objectives were to provide Keynesian economics with more rigorous foundations and to tighten and elaborate the logic of macroeconomic and monetary theory."
- James Tobin
(Related: Time, Economics, Logic, Objectives, Research, Theory)
"I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social advance as a first step toward revolution, and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all."
- Alexis de Tocqueville
(Related: Men, Danger, First, Revolution, Help, Innovation, May, Theory, Trouble)
"Life is so unlike theory."
- Anthony Trollope
(Related: Life, Theory)
"From this bestial view that the human mind consists of only sense certainty, pleasure and pain, Locke developed an equally bestial theory of the nation. Man originally existed in a State of Nature of complete liberty."
- Robert Trout
(Related: Nature, Certainty, Liberty, Man, Mind, Nation, Pain, Pleasure, Sense, State, Theory)
"Now the truth of the matter is that there are a lot of things people don't understand. Take the Einstein theory. Take taxes. Take love. Do you understand them? Neither do I. But they exist. They happen."
- Dalton Trumbo
(Related: Love, Truth, People, Now, Taxes, Theory)
"And capital punishment, however ineffective it may be and through whatever ignorance it may be resorted to, is a strictly defensive act, - at least in theory."
- Benjamin Tucker
(Related: Act, Ignorance, May, Punishment, Theory)
"Beautiful Evidence is about the theory and practice of analytical design."
- Edward Tufte
(Related: Design, Practice, Theory)
"He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast."
- Leonardo da Vinci
(Related: May, Practice, Theory)
"My theory was that what I had to do was make a study of human behavior."
- A. E. van Vogt
(Related: Behavior, Study, Theory)
"On the spiritual theory, man consists essentially of a spiritual nature or mind intimately associated with a spiritual body or soul, both of which are developed in and by means of a material organism."
- Alfred Russel Wallace
(Related: Nature, Soul, Body, Man, Mind, Spiritual, Theory)
"Today, the theory of evolution is an accepted fact for everyone but a fundamentalist minority, whose objections are based not on reasoning but on doctrinaire adherence to religious principles."
- James D. Watson
(Related: Evolution, Fact, Minority, Principles, Religious, Theory, Today)
"Radical constructivism, thus, is radical because it breaks with convention and develops a theory of knowledge in which knowledge does not reflect an 'objective' ontological reality."
- Paul Watzlawick
(Related: Knowledge, Radical, Reality, Theory)
"Einstein explained his theory to me every day, and on my arrival I was fully convinced that he understood it."
- Chaim Weizmann
(Related: Day, Theory)
"To hate is to study, to study is to understand, to understand is to appreciate, to appreciate is to love. So maybe I'll end up loving your theory."
- John Archibald Wheeler
(Related: Love, End, Hate, Study, Theory)
"The whole theory of the universe is directed unerringly to one single individual."
- Walt Whitman
(Related: Theory, Universe)
"Darwin based his theory on generalizations that were strictly empirical. You can go out and see that organisms do vary, that variations are inherited, and that every organism is capable of increasing its numbers in sufficiently favorable circumstances."
- George C. Williams
(Related: Circumstances, Numbers, Theory)
"I really wish there was some big brother conspiracy theory. I just think it's the ignorance of trying to make a dollar. That's what the networks have done and will continue to do. If anyone doesn't think that this is about making money, then they're crazy."
- Montel Williams
(Related: Money, Brother, Ignorance, Theory, Trying, Will)
"According to String Theory, what appears to be empty space is actually a tumultuous ocean of strings vibrating at the precise frequencies that create the 4 dimensions you and I call height, width, depth and time."
- Roy H. Williams
(Related: Time, Ocean, Space, Theory)
"Einstein was searching for String Theory. It not only reconciles General Relativity to Quantum Mechanics, but it reconciles Science and the Bible as well."
- Roy H. Williams
(Related: Science, Bible, Relativity, Theory)
"In essence, String Theory describes space and time, matter and energy, gravity and light, indeed all of God's creation... as music."
- Roy H. Williams
(Related: Music, Time, God, Creation, Energy, Gravity, Light, Space, Theory)
"String Theory describes energy and matter as being composed of tiny, wiggling strands of energy that look like strings. And the pitch of a string's vibration determines the nature of its effect."
- Roy H. Williams
(Related: Nature, Being, Effect, Energy, Theory)
"There is no complete theory of anything."
- Robert Anton Wilson
(Related: Theory)
"There was a long history of speculation that in quantum gravity, unlike Einstein's classical theory, it might be possible for the topology of spacetime to change."
- Edward Witten
(Related: Change, History, Gravity, Theory)
"The theory has to be interpreted that extra dimensions beyond the ordinary four dimensions the three spatial dimensions plus time are sufficiently small that they haven't been observed yet."
- Edward Witten
(Related: Time, Theory)
"String theory is an attempt at a deeper description of nature by thinking of an elementary particle not as a little point but as a little loop of vibrating string."
- Edward Witten
(Related: Nature, Theory, Thinking)
"So when you ask me how string theory might be tested, I can tell you what's likely to happen at accelerators or some parts of the theory that are likely to be tested."
- Edward Witten
(Related: Theory)
"On the other hand, we don't understand the theory too completely, and because of this fuzziness of spacetime, the very concept of spacetime and spacetime dimensions isn't precisely defined."
- Edward Witten
(Related: Theory)
"Technically you need the extra dimensions. At first people didn't like them too much, but they've got a big benefit, which is that the ability of string theory to describe all the elementary particles and their forces along with gravity depends on using the extra dimensions."
- Edward Witten
(Related: People, Ability, First, Gravity, Theory)
"Even before string theory, especially as physics developed in the 20th century, it turned out that the equations that really work in describing nature with the most generality and the greatest simplicity are very elegant and subtle."
- Edward Witten
(Related: Nature, Work, Physics, Simplicity, Theory)
"I wouldn't have thought that a wrong theory should lead us to understand better the ordinary quantum field theories or to have new insights about the quantum states of black holes."
- Edward Witten
(Related: Thought, states, Theories, Theory, Wrong)
"If I take the theory as we have it now, literally, I would conclude that extra dimensions really exist. They're part of nature. We don't really know how big they are yet, but we hope to explore that in various ways."
- Edward Witten
(Related: Nature, Hope, Now, Theory)
"Philosophy is not a theory but an activity."
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
(Related: Philosophy, Theory)
"Frankly, these days, without a theory to go with it, I can't see a painting."
- Tom Wolfe
(Related: Painting, Theory)
"Thought and theory must precede all salutary action; yet action is nobler in itself than either thought or theory."
- Virginia Woolf
(Related: Thought, Action, Theory)
"My theory of evolution is that Darwin was adopted."
- Steven Wright
(Related: Evolution, Theory)
"I am relying on the theory that playing golf is just like riding a bike and that I haven't forgotten how."
- Jennifer Wyatt
(Related: Golf, Theory)
"In theory, I'd like to work in a group. But the group I'd like to work in, all the musicians in them are long since dead."
- Robert Wyatt
(Related: Work, Musicians, Theory)
"To an intellectual who is adrift in politics, a theory is an aim; to a true politician his theory is a boundary."
- Francis Parker Yockey
(Related: Politics, Theory)
"A political theory seeks to find from history the limits of the politically possible."
- Francis Parker Yockey
(Related: History, Limits, Theory)
"If you want to know the taste of a pear, you must change the pear by eating it yourself. If you want to know the theory and methods of revolution, you must take part in revolution. All genuine knowledge originates in direct experience."
- Mao Zedong
(Related: Change, Experience, Knowledge, Eating, Revolution, Taste, Theory, Want)
"I should point out, however, that at first some difficulty was experienced in observing the phenomena predicted by the theory, owing to the extreme smallness of the variations in the period of oscillation."
- Pieter Zeeman
(Related: Difficulty, Extreme, First, Theory)
"On the basis of Lorentz's theory, if we limit ourselves to a single spectral line, it suffices to assume that each atom (or molecule) contains a single moving electron."
- Pieter Zeeman
(Related: Theory)
"The theory of relativity worked out by Mr. Einstein, which is in the domain of natural science, I believe can also be applied to the political field. Both democracy and human rights are relative concepts - and not absolute and general."
- Jiang Zemin
(Related: Science, Democracy, Rights, Human rights, Relativity, Theory)