What is time? What is space? Quotes

“Too often scientists sell hypothetical theories to the large public, as if they were established theories. I have seen this often done, for instance, with string theory. I think this is a great mistake, because it questions the credibility itself of science. We scientists live out of public money and it is our duty to be fully honest in reporting what we know and what we do not know. We are paid to dream, but we must not sell our dreams for established realities.”
― Carlo Rovelli, What is time? What is space?

“I chose as my supervisor a professor who allowed me to continue to study what I wanted.”
― Carlo Rovelli, What is time? What is space?

“The career of a mathematician begins when he realizes that a subject he is studying is not presented in the right way: it starts with an act of rebellion…”).”
― Carlo Rovelli, What is time? What is space?

“A novel image of the world is taking shape: a world without space and without time. The space where the world “inhabits” and the time “along which” things evolve might soon disappear from our fundamental description of the physical world, in the same manner in which notions such as “the centre of the universe” have disappeared in the past.”
― Carlo Rovelli, What is time? What is space?

“It was not the applications that motivated them but the natural desire to know.”
― Carlo Rovelli, What is time? What is space?

“This is also true from a methodological point of view: a scientist orients his own research on the basis of epistemological ideas. He might be more or less aware of them. Very often to be aware of your own assumptions is far better than to be guided by methodological prejudices of which you are unaware.”
― Carlo Rovelli, What is time? What is space?