William Lawrence Bragg famous quotes

The present rate of progress [in X-ray crystallography] is determined, not so much by the lack of problems to investigate or the limited power of X-ray analysis, as by the restricted number of investigators who have had a training in the technique of the new science, and by the time it naturally takes for its scientific and technical importance to become widely appreciated.
-- William Lawrence Bragg

#Science #Numbers #Training

[Presently, science undergraduates] do not learn to write clearly and briefly, marshalling their points in due and aesthetically satisfying order, and eliminating inessentials. They are inept at those turns of phrase or happy analogy which throw a flying bridge across a chasm of misunderstanding and make contact between mind and mind.
-- William Lawrence Bragg

#Writing #Science #Order

I feel very strongly indeed that a Cambridge education for our scientists should include some contact with the humanistic side. The gift of expression is important to them as scientists; the best research is wasted when it is extremely difficult to discover what it is all about ... It is even more important when scientists are called upon to play their part in the world of affairs, as is happening to an increasing extent.
-- William Lawrence Bragg

#Expression #Play #Important

God runs electromagnetics by wave theory on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and the Devil runs them by quantum theory on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
-- William Lawrence Bragg

#Friday #Running #Monday

The dividing line between the wave or particle nature of matter and radiation is the moment “Now.” As this moment steadily advances through time it coagulates a wavy future into a particle past.
-- William Lawrence Bragg

#Past #Lines #Radiation

The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them.
-- William Lawrence Bragg

#Knowledge #Learning #Science

Knowledge above the average can be crammed into the average man, but it remains dead, and in the last analysis sterile knowledge. The result is a man who may be a living dictionary but nevertheless falls down miserably in all special situations and decisive moments in life.

Where lies the line between sorcery and science? It is only a matter of terminology, my friend.

Food is a subject of conversation more spiritually refreshing even than the weather, for the number of possible remarks about the weather is limited, whereas of food you can talk on and on and on.

Courage is poorly housed that dwells in numbers; the lion never counts the herd that are about him, nor weighs how many flocks he has to scatter.

I had Lana and she was the number one player on my team

The Prophet defeated the enemies of Islam even when he and his followers were small in number.

Shooting is 99 per cent luck and one per cent training

And I think that still is true of this business - which is basically research and development - that you probably spend more time in planning and training and designing for things to go wrong, and how you cope with them, than you do for things to go right.

There are only two excuses you can use for missing rugby training - death and docking!

What is difficult in training will become easy in a battle