John Archibald Wheeler Quotes & Sayings

In order to more fully understand this reality, we must take into account other dimensions of a broader reality. — John Archibald Wheeler

Knowledge only progresses by making mistakes as fast as possible. — John Archibald Wheeler

Individual events. Events beyond law. Events so numerous and so uncoordinated that, flaunting their freedom from formula, they yet fabricate firm form. — John Archibald Wheeler

We live on an island surrounded by a sea of ignorance. As our island of knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance. — John Archibald Wheeler

It was the defining event and remains a thousand degrees hot. — John Archibald Wheeler

Now is the time for everyone who believes in the rule of reason to speak up against pathological science and its purveyors. — John Archibald Wheeler

No phenomenon is a real phenomenon until it is an observed phenomenon. — John Archibald Wheeler

The universe gives birth to consciousness, and consciousness gives meaning to the universe. — John Archibald Wheeler

Of all heroes , Spinoza was Einstein 's greatest. No one expressed more strongly then he a belief in the harmony , the beauty , and most of all the ultimate comprehensibility of nature . — John Archibald Wheeler

Yes, there is happiness to be found in the mere contemplation of the deepest mysteries. — John Archibald Wheeler

It from Bit symbolizes the idea that every item of the physical world has at bottom an immaterial source and explanation ... that all things physical are information-theoretic in origin and that this is a participatory universe. — John Archibald Wheeler

Spacetime grips mass, telling it how to move ...
Mass grips spacetime, telling it how to curve — John Archibald Wheeler

Every heat engineer knows he can design his heat engine reliably and accurately on the foundation of the second law [of thermodynamics]. Run alongside one of the molecules, however, and ask it what it thinks of the second law. It will laugh at us. It never heard of the second law. It does what it wants. All the same, a collection of billions upon billions of such molecules obeys the second law with all the accuracy one could want — John Archibald Wheeler

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

The job of a theoretical physicist is to make mistakes as fast as possible . — John Archibald Wheeler

No space, no time, no gravity, no electromagnetism, no particles. Nothing. We are back where Plato, Aristotle and Parmenides struggled with the great questions: How Come the Universe, How Come Us, How Come Anything? But happily also we have around the answer to these questions. That's us. — John Archibald Wheeler

Anyone who expects to create, be it as a scientist or artist, scholar or writer, needs self-confidence, even bravado. How else can one dare to imagine understanding what no one else has understood, discovering what no one else has discovered? Where does this confidence come from? Fortunately, every young person is blessed with some of it. It is part of human character. — John Archibald Wheeler

There are many modes of thinking about the world around us and our place in it. I like to consider all the angles from which we might gain perspective on our amazing universe and the nature of existence. — John Archibald Wheeler

Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once. — John Archibald Wheeler

But some numbers, called dimensionless numbers, have the same numerical value no matter what units of measurement are chosen. Probably the most famous of these is the "fine-structure constant," ... Physicists love this number not just because it is dimensionless, but also because it is a combination of three fundamental constants of nature. — John Archibald Wheeler

Time, among all concepts in the world of physics, puts up the greatest resistance to being dethroned from ideal continuum to the world of the discrete, of information, of bits ... Of all obstacles to a thoroughly penetrating account of existence, none looms up more dismayingly than 'time.' Explain time? Not without explaining existence. Explain existence? Not without explaining time. To uncover the deep and hidden connection between time and existence ... is a task for the future. — John Archibald Wheeler

We will first understand how simple the universe is when we recognize how strange it is. — John Archibald Wheeler

The observer cannot be left out of the description of the observation. — John Archibald Wheeler

One can only learn by teaching. — John Archibald Wheeler

It is my opinion that everything must be based on a simple idea. And it is my opinion that this idea, once we have finally discovered it, will be so compelling, so beautiful, that we will say to one another, yes, how could it have been any different. — John Archibald Wheeler

Surely where there's smoke there's fire? No, where there's so much smoke there's smoke. — John Archibald Wheeler

I like to say, when asked why I pursue science, that it is to satisfy my curiosity, that I am by nature a searcher trying to understand. If you haven't found something strange during the day, it hasn't been much of a day. — John Archibald Wheeler

The laws of physics that we regard
as 'sacred,' as immutable, are anything
but. — John Archibald Wheeler

'Participant' is the incontrovertible new concept given by quantum mechanics. It strikes down the 'observer' of classical theory, the man who stands safely behind the thick glass wall and watches what goes on without taking part. It can't be done, quantum mechanics says it ... May the universe in some sense be 'brought into being' by the participation of those who participate? — John Archibald Wheeler

Nobody can be anybody without somebodies around. — John Archibald Wheeler

We all know that the real reason universities have students is in order to educate the professors. — John Archibald Wheeler

I like to think that someone will trace how the deepest thinking of India made its way to Greece and from there to the philosophy of our times — John Archibald Wheeler

Never make a calculation until you know the answer. Make an estimate before every calculation, try a simple physical argument (symmetry! invariance! conservation!) before every derivation, guess the answer to every paradox and puzzle. Courage: No one else needs to know what the guess is. Therefore make it quickly, by instinct. A right guess reinforces this instinct. A wrong guess brings the refreshment of surprise. In either case life as a spacetime expert, however long, is more fun! — John Archibald Wheeler

We are not only observers. We are participators. In some strange sense this is aparticipatory universe. — John Archibald Wheeler

Behind it all is surely an idea so simple, so beautiful, that when we grasp it - in a decade, a century, or a millennium - we will all say to each other, how could it have been otherwise? How could we have been so stupid? — John Archibald Wheeler

This is *our* Universe, our museum of wonder and beauty, our cathedral. — John Archibald Wheeler

Physicists love this number not just because it is dimensionless, but also because it is a combination of three fundamental constants of nature. Why do these constants come together to make the particular number 1/137.036 and not some other number? — John Archibald Wheeler

In any field, find the strangest thing and then explore it. — John Archibald Wheeler

Spacetime tells matter how to move; matter tells spacetime how to curve. — John Archibald Wheeler