Kai Xin Quah

“Die Natur ist nur einmal da. Nur unser schematisches Nachbilden erzeugt gleiche Fälle.”
― Ernst Mach

“The most important result of our reflections is …that precisely the apparently simplest mechanical theorems are of a very complicated nature; that they are founded on incomplete experiences, even on experiences that never can be fully completed; that in view of the tolerable stability of our environment they are, in fact, practically safeguarded to serve as the foundation of mathematical deduction; but that they by ho means themselves can be regarded as mathematically established truths, but only as theorems that not only admit of constant control by experience but actually require it.”
― Ernst Mach, Die Mechanik in ihrer Entwicklung: Historisch-kritisch dargestellt

“... we see in philosophy not a system of cognitions, but a system of acts; philosophy is that activity through which the meaning of statements is revealed or determined. By means of philosophy statements are explained, by means of science they are verified. The latter is con­ cerned with the truth of statements, the former with what they actually mean. The content, soul and spirit of science is lodged naturally in what in the last analysis its statements actually mean; the philo­ sophical activity of giving meaning is therefore the Alpha and Omega of all scientific knowledge. This was indeed correctly surmised when it was said that philosophy supplied both the foundation and the apex of the edifice of science. It was a mistake, however, to suppose that the foundation was made up of “philosophical” statements (the statements of theory of knowledge), and crowned by a dome of philosophical statements (called metaphysics).”
― Moritz Schlick

“The key to understanding complicated things is knowing what not to look at.”
― Gerald Jay Sussman