Relativity Theory Quotes

#1. If Relativity Theory kills our deepest convictions, why not start by finding out why we believed in them for millennia?

Felix Alba-Juez

#2. The star S0-2 orbits around Sgr A* every 16 years and will go through its closest approach in 2018. That's an opportunity to test Einstein's General Relativity theory through very precise measurements of this star's short period orbit.

Andrea M. Ghez

#3. Some scientist needs to explain to spectators Einstein's relativity theory. Before his explanation, he says: 'I have to suffer a lot explaining something I don't understand myself.' This relates to my game: I didn't understand anything!

Vassily Ivanchuk

#4. The revolution which began with the creation of quantum theory and relativity theory can only be finished with their unification into a single theory that can give us a single, comprehensive picture of nature.

Lee Smolin

#5. 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

#6. I heard that in relativity theory, space and time are the same thing. Einstein discovered this when he kept showing up three miles late for his meetings.

Steven Wright

#7. Einstein was arguing against quantum theory just as irrationally as his opponents had argued against relativity theory. Einstein remained adamant (he remained adamant to the end of his life where quantum theory was concerned).

Richard Rhodes

#8. I believe that I have really found the relationship between gravitation and electricity, assuming that the Miller experiments are based on a fundamental error. Otherwise, the whole relativity theory collapses like a house of cards.

Albert Einstein

#9. Relativity theory forced the abandonment, in principle, of absolute space and absolute time.

Marshall McLuhan

#10. In my relativity theory I set up a clock at every point in space, but in reality I find it difficult to provide even one clock in my room.

Albert Einstein

#11. At present every coachman and every waiter argues about whether or not the relativity theory is correct.

Albert Einstein

#12. conformed to the principle of least action, a foundation of physics that holds that light or any object moving between two points should follow the easiest path.3 Planck's paper not only contributed to the development of relativity theory; it also helped to legitimize it among other physicists.

Walter Isaacson

#13. 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

#14. The rotating armatures of every generator and motor in this age of electricity are steadily proclaiming the truth of the relativity theory to all who have ears to hear.

Leigh Page

#15. Now to the term 'relativity theory.' I admit that it is unfortunate, and has given occasion to philosophical misunderstandings.

Albert Einstein

#16. Upon hearing via Littlewood an exposition on the theory of relativity: To think I have spent my life on absolute muck.

Bertrand Russell

#17. Asked in 1919 whether it was true that only three people in the world understood the theory of general relativity, [Eddington] allegedly replied: 'Who's the third?

Arthur Stanley Eddington

#18. Hugh is now playing a game on his mobile phone. His greasy fat fingers with bitten down nails surprisingly agile on the keys. The concentration on his face is admirable in a way. It was probably with a similar level of concentration that the theory of relativity was formulated.

Glenn Haybittle

#19. Now Einstein was a very clever man, with us all his philosophies he shared, He gave us the theory of relativity, which is E equals M C squared.

Richard Digance

#20. That's impossible [ ... ] You need infinite energy for light travel. Haven't you heard of the theory of relativity?"
She thought she had him stumped with that one, but he just laughed again. "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

Shannon Messenger

#21. 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

#22. When forced to summarize the general theory of relativity in one sentence: Time and space and gravitation have no separate existence from matter.

Albert Einstein

#23. There certainly is a tension between the relativity of simultaneity and non-locality in quantum theory, but it's not strong enough to add up to a falsification of either side by itself.

Lee Smolin

#24. I think, you know, the thing everybody really wants to know anyway is not what the theory of relativity is, but I think what we all really want to know anyways, is whether we're loved or not.

Rich Mullins

#25. Einstein didn't speak until he was four, leading most of his teachers to believe he was crazy. That is until he whipped out the theory of relativity. BAYUM! Showed you guys.

Albert Einstein

#26. Some of the world's most talented people are introverts. Without them we wouldn't have the Apple computer, the theory of relativity or Van Gogh's sunflowers.

Susan Cain

#27. Early-twentieth-century abstraction is art's version of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. It's the idea that changed everything everywhere: quickly, decisively, for good.

Jerry Saltz

#28. Doesn't the theory of relativity concern literature too? In our world there is no longer any room for the privileged observer, as there is none for the observer of the universe - we are all within.

Nina Berberova

#29. No one has yet discovered any warlike purpose to be served by the theory of numbers or relativity, and it seems unlikely that anyone will do so for many years.

G.H. Hardy

#30. Fractals, the theory of relativity, the genome: these are magnificently beautiful constructs.

Adam Savage

#31. It took Einstein ten years of groping through the fog to get the theory of special relativity, and he was a bright guy.

James C. Collins

#32. The 4D style, or cosmic comics and relativistic humor, is based on Einstein's theory of relativity which I came up with 20 years ago. 4D works use the idea of the fourth dimension, time, playing on such surrealistic and amazing subjects as motion relativity, space curvature and time dilation.

Javad Alizadeh

#33. It is almost impossible to have a baseless snobbish opinion of the General Theory of Relativity.

Michael Moorcock

#34. I always found it satisfying that gravity was described by Einstein's geometric theory of general relativity.

Antony Garrett Lisi

#35. One looks forward to the day when the General Theory of Relativity and the Principia will outsell the Kama Sutra in back-street bookshops.

J.G. Ballard

#36. Combining quantum entanglement with wormholes yields mind boggling results about black holes. But I don't trust them until we have a theory of everything which can combine quantum effects with general relativity. i.e. we need to have a full blown string theory resolve this sticky question.

Michio Kaku

#37. Einstein's theory of relativity does a fantastic job for explaining big things. Quantum mechanics is fantastic for the other end of the spectrum - for small things.

Brian Greene

#38. The difficulty involved in the proper and adequate means of describing changes in continuous deformable bodies is the method of differential equations ... They express mathematically the physical concept of contiguous action.
Einstein's Theory of Relativity

Max Born

#39. Never be ashamed of madness, instead be ashamed of people that are ashamed of madness. Without a little bit of insanity, we would have never had the Theory of Relativity, electricity, airplanes, cars or your beloved iPhone. Madness got you that.

Shannon L. Alder

#40. Einstein, in the special theory of relativity, proved that different observers, in different states of motion, see different realities.

Leonard Susskind

#41. 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

#42. No, I don't understand my husband's theory of relativity, but I know my husband and I know he can be trusted.

Elsa Einstein

#43. Since Einstein developed his theory of relativity, and Rutherford and Bohr revolutionised physics, our picture of the world has radically changed.

A. N. Wilson

#44. Every great artist raises art to a science, and every great scientist raises science to an art, hence we have Michelangelo's David and Einstein's Theory of Relativity.

Robert Breault

#45. A mathematician says that an electromagnetic wave travels from Andromeda to your eye and that it also extends from Andromeda to your eye.

Bill Gaede

#46. For years, my early work with Roger Penrose seemed to be a disaster for science. It showed that the universe must have begun with a singularity, if Einstein's general theory of relativity is correct. That appeared to indicate that science could not predict how the universe would begin.

Stephen Hawking

#47. More careful reflection teaches us, however, that the special theory of relativity does not compel us to deny ether...To deny the ether is ultimately to assume that empty space has no physical qualities whatever.

Albert Einstein

#48. Back in 1917, when Einstein had analyzed the "cosmological considerations" arising from his general theory of relativity, most astronomers thought that the universe consisted only of our Milky Way, floating with its 100 billion or so stars in a void of empty space.

Walter Isaacson

#49. What lead me more or less directly to the special theory of relativity was the conviction that the electromotive force acting on a body in motion in a magnetic field was nothing else but an electric field.

Albert Einstein

#50. His new idea was published that month in what became yet another seminal Einstein paper, "Cosmological Considerations in the General Theory of Relativity."9 On the surface, it did indeed seem to be based on a crazy notion: space has no borders because gravity bends it back on itself. Einstein

Walter Isaacson

#51. The birth of science as we know it arguably began with Isaac Newton's formulation of the laws of gravitation and motion. It is no exaggeration to say that physics was reborn in the early 20th-century with the twin revolutions of quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity.

Paul Davies

#52. General relativity is the cornerstone of cosmology and astrophysics. It has also provided the conceptual basis for string theory and other attempts to unify all the forces of nature in terms of geometrical structures.

Paul Davies

#53. In Einstein's theory of relativity the observer is a man who sets out in quest of truth armed with a measuring-rod. In quantum theory he sets out with a sieve.

Arthur Eddington

#54. The last I knew you were going to a party. just a few friends at the McEvoys' you told me. The science club, you told me. What happened? You got into a fight about the theory of relativity? Did creationists crash the party and start a rumble?

Tami Hoag

#55. Einstein, like myself, found Bern pleasant but boring. And so I wonder: If the Swiss were more interesting, might he never have daydreamed as much as he did? Might he never have developed the Special Theory of Relativity? In other words, is there something to be said for boredom?

Eric Weiner

#56. Time travel used to be thought of as just science fiction, but Einstein's general theory of relativity allows for the possibility that we could warp space-time so much that you could go off in a rocket and return before you set out.

Stephen Hawking

#57. One day you have Einstein, puzzling over the theory of relativity, the next you've got the Manhattan Project and a big hole in the ground.

Justin Cronin

#58. Have you ever heard of the theory of relativity?"
Artemis blinked. "Is this a joke? I have traveled through time, Doctor. I think I know a little something about relativity.

Eoin Colfer

#59. Well, it has done terrifying things. Religious ideas are inflammatory in a way that I find difficult to understand. There are very few wars over the theory of relativity. Very few heated arguments, for that matter. Whereas, in Northern Ireland, they are killing one another over religion.

Quentin Crisp

#60. Einstein's theory of General Relativity has a mathematical structure very similar to Yang-Mills theory.

Chen-Ning Yang

#61. Evolution ... is really two theories, the vague theory and the precise theory. The vague theory has been abundantly proved ... The precise theory has never been proved at all. However, like relativity, it is accepted on faith ... On getting down to actual details, difficulties begin.

Anthony Standen

#62. Since the mathematicians have invaded the theory of relativity I do not understand it myself any more.

Albert Einstein

#63. When I was doing Professor Albert Einstein's bust he had many a jibe at the Nazi professors, one hundred of whom had condemned his theory of relativity in a book. 'Were I wrong,' he said, 'one professor would have been enough.

Jacob Epstein

#64. If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare me a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German, and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.

Albert Einstein

#65. Quantum field theory, which was born just fifty years ago from the marriage of quantum mechanics with relativity, is a beautiful but not very robust child.

Steven Weinberg

#66. Some men spend a lifetime in an attempt to comprehend the complexities of women. Others pre-occupy themselves with somewhat simpler tasks, such as understanding the theory of relativity!

Albert Einstein

#67. If one could see an infinite distance, they would observe the back of their head. That is Einstein's theory in a nut-shell.

R. Alan Woods

#68. The Great Pyramid of Giza was designed in agreement with the Theory of General Relativity.

Ibrahim Ibrahim

#69. A university student attending lectures on general relativity i the morning and others on quantum mechanics in the afternoon might be forgiven for thinking that his professors are fools, or have neglected to communicate with each other for at least a century.

Carlo Rovelli

#70. Since the mathematicians have grabbed hold of the theory of relativity, I myself no longer understand it.

Walter Isaacson

#71. On quantum theory I use up more brain grease (rough translation of German idiom) than on relativity.

Albert Einstein

#72. In my personal experience I have hardly come to know the wretchedness of mankind better than as a result of the general theory of relativity and everything connected to it. But it doesn't bother me.

Albert Einstein

#73. While Einstein's theory of relativity may one day put Earth on the intergalactic map, it will always run a distant second to the Lord's Prayer, whose harnessing of energies in their proper, life-giving direction surpasses even the discovery of fire.[2]

Brian Zahnd

#74. General theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. They are the great intellectual achievements of the first half of this century.

Stephen Hawking

#75. I believe my theory of relativity to be true. But it will only be proved for certain in 1981, when I am dead.

Albert Einstein

#76. Einstein didn't invent the theory of relativity while he was multitasking at the Swiss patent office.
quoting, David Meyer, a cognitive scientist at the University of Michigan

Winifred Gallagher

#77. Theoretical physicists accept the need for mathematical beauty as an act of faith ... For example, the main reason why the theory of relativity is so universally accepted is its mathematical beauty.

Paul Dirac

#78. The special theory of relativity owes its origins to Maxwell's equations of the electromagnetic field.

Albert Einstein

#79. The Theory of Relativity confers an absolute meaning on a magnitude which in classical theory has only a relative significance: the velocity of light. The velocity of light is to the Theory of Relativity as the elementary quantum of action is to the Quantum Theory: it is its absolute core.

Max Planck

#80. Einstein, my upset stomach hates your theory [of General Relativity] - it almost hates you yourself! How am I to' provide for my students? What am I to answer to the philosophers?!!

Paul Ehrenfest

#81. It followed from the special theory of relativity that mass and energy are both but different manifestations of the same thing.

Albert Einstein

#82. Many of us have no grasp of quantum theory, or Einstein's theories of special and general relativity, but this does not in itself lead us to oppose these theories! Darwinism, unlike 'Einsteinism', seems to be regarded as fair game for critics with any degree of ignorance.

Richard Dawkins

#83. 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

#84. The theory of relativity doesn't amount to a hill of beans when there's a bonfire in your shorts.

Lois Greiman

#85. I count Maxwell and Einstein, Eddington and Dirac, among "real" mathematicians. The great modern achievements of applied mathematics have been in relativity and quantum mechanics, and these subjects are at present at any rate, almost as "useless" as the theory of numbers.

G.H. Hardy

#86. I can accept the theory of relativity as little as I can accept the existence of atoms and other such dogmas.

Ernst Mach

#87. There was a young lady of Wight Who travelled much faster than light. She departed one day, In a relative way, And arrived on the previous night. The point is that the theory of relativity says that there is no unique measure of time that all observers will agree on.

Stephen Hawking

#88. No one must think that Newton's great creation can be overthrown in any real sense by this [Theory of Relativity] or by any other theory. His clear and wide ideas will for ever retain their significance as the foundation on which our modern conceptions of physics have been built.

Albert Einstein

#89. It is ironic that Einsteins most creative work, the general theory of relativity, should boil down to conceptualizing space as a medium when his original premise [in special relativity] was that no such medium existed [..] ...

Robert B. Laughlin

#90. I became interested in this question of whether you can build wormholes for interstellar travel. I realized that if you had a wormhole, the theory of general relativity by itself would permit you to go backward in time.

Kip Thorne