Philip Warren Anderson Quotes

The first months at Harvard were more than challenging, as I came to the realization that the humanities could be genuinely interesting, and, in fact, given the weaknesses of my background, very difficult.

The Nobel Prize gives one the opportunity to take public stands.

Although raised on the farm – my grandfather was an unsuccessful fundamentalist preacher turned farmer – my father and his brother both became professors.

My belief is based on the fact that string theory is the first science in hundreds of years to be pursued in pre-Baconian fashion, without any adequate experimental guidance.

The prize seemed to change my professional life very little.

One of our brainchildren is a still viable Science and Society course.

Of course I am not religious — I don’t in fact see how any scientist who thinks at all deeply can be so.

The field of quantum valence fluctuations was another older interest which became much more active during this period, partly as a consequence of my own efforts.

I have also testified repeatedly and published some articles in favor of Small Science.

We atheists can argue that, with the modern revolution in attitudes toward homosexuals, we have become the only group that may not reveal itself in normal social discourse.

I acquired an admiration for Japanese culture, art, and architecture, and learned of the existence of the game of GO, which I still play.

A souvenir of those years is a small cottage on the cliffs of Cornwall, where Joyce and I spend a spring month every year, hiking and seeing friends.