David Gross Quotations

Reading history, one rarely gets the feeling of the true nature of scientific development, in which the element of farce is as great as the element of triumph.

My father and mother treated us children as intellectual equals, thus greatly bolstering our self-confidence and our interest in ideas of all kinds.

The progress of science is much more muddled than is depicted in most history books. This is especially true of theoretical physics, partly because history is written by the victorious.

When I was at Berkeley, the framework of quantum field theory could calculate the dynamics of electromagnetism. It could roughly describe the motion of the weak nuclear force, radiation. But it hit a brick wall with the strong interaction, the binding force.

Actually, I was more or less determined to be a theoretical physicist at the age of thirteen.

Fortunately, nature is as generous with its problems as Nobel with his fortune. The more we know, the more aware we are of what we know not.

I had set out to disprove quantum field theory - and the opposite occurred! I was shocked.

I strongly believe that the fundamental laws of nature are not emergent phenomena.

Indeed, the most important product of knowledge is ignorance.

Since the founding of quantum mechanics in the 1920s, theoretical physics had nurtured an extremely radical tradition.

The early 1960s, when I started my graduate studies at UC Berkeley, were a period of experimental supremacy and theoretical impotence.

Theorists can be wrong; only nature is always right.

Theorists have wonderful ideas which take years and years to be verified.

From the age of 13, I was attracted to physics and mathematics. My interest in these subjects derived mostly from popular science books that I read avidly.

In order to achieve a true understanding of string theory, some new idea will be required, and most likely, some break with the concepts on which we've traditionally based physical theory.

In the lab, we could not see or physically describe the mathematical objects that we called quarks, which we suspected were the key to unlocking the dynamics of the strong force that binds together the clump of protons and neutrons at the center of the atom.

My childhood in Arlington, Va., a middle class suburb of Washington, was uneventful. Ours was a very intellectual family, and we were encouraged to read at a very early age.

Quantum field theory was originally developed for the treatment of electrodynamics, immediately after the completion of quantum mechanics and the discovery of the Dirac equation.

Some wonder whether some day we will arrive at a theory of everything and run out of new problems to solve - much as the effort to explore the earth ran out of new continents to explore.

The advice I tell students is to think about the big problems. I mean, work on anything you can work on where you can make progress. But always keep in mind the big problems.

The Big Bang theory is the idea that if we go back early enough in the history of the universe - and we can do this, of course, by looking at starlight coming to us from billions of years ago - we will see a very hot and dense period where the universe was much smaller, denser, and hotter.

The main reason why people should care about research in fundamental physics is the same reason they care about astronomy and cosmology. People, children, want to know what we're made out of, how it works, and why the universe is the way it is.

To understand the universe in the state that it began in, the so-called Big Bang, we need laws of physics that work better than our current set of rules and procedures, which break down when we try to push them back to the beginning.

No agreement is preferred to a bad agreement,

When the Medicare drug benefit was passed, AARP issued a challenge to the drug industry to keep increases at least to the rate of inflation until people had better coverage. By and large, that's not happening, ... Prices are going up more than twice the rate of inflation.

Some countries want that. We think that's unacceptable.

Obviously we want to find common ground, we want a successful summit, but we're not giving away our principles in order to get there,

We look at the Internet's success and want to make sure we keep the recipe for it. If you modify it, the risk is that you come out with something far worse.

We've been very, very clear throughout the process that there are certain things we can agree to and certain things we can't agree to, ... It's not a negotiating issue. This is a matter of national policy.

I think there were times when we definitely missed Ben. It seemed like we'd make a stop on defense, but we couldn't convert on the other end. I think if we had Ben in there, we would have had more of a flow on offense and he could have helped us get some better shots.

Our strong preference is to have a document that everyone can be proud of.

I was born in Washington, D.C., on February 19, 1941, the eldest of four sons.

Those countries that use firewalls or otherwise restrict the ability of their citizens to obtain access to information are hurting themselves, especially when it comes to their ability to compete economically,

We did not change anything on the role of the US government with regard to the technical aspects that we were very concerned about.

We want to be very clear, and not necessarily fuzz things up with diplomatic language that may get us in trouble down the road.

Who's to say otherwise? That's an easy wash,

We would be sorely disappointed not to have a document at all, but that would be better than to have a bad document.

Every check we deposited ... is verified and accounted for. So this is a shock. We listen but don't condemn until we know the whole story.

The United Nations will not be in charge of the internet. Period,

Until I see an announcement that they officially have a league, I'm not going to comment. The NLL throws some things out there. They talked about having a second indoor league, the NLL2, and they've talked about expanding to something like 29 teams. None of that has come to fruition.

We think that that's inappropriate, ... The genius of the Internet is that it has been flexible (and) private sector led.

reaffirmed the role of technology to the world and preserved the unique role of the U.S.

Science is shaped by ignorance. Great questions themselves evolve, of course, because their answers spawn new and better questions in turn.

Science is truly a wonderful way of life. Most of the questions that need to be answered have not been answered. There are marvelous questions waiting for answers that need marvelous young minds to attack them.

Denver is signed, sealed and delivered to the league. Right now, we're just waiting to get the team name and personnel in place. I'd say you'll see an announcement no later than Nov. 1.

There's nothing new in this document that wasn't already out there before,

I know those rules. I know which rules not to break and I know how to get around everything else. You know, so cash is no problem.

The new Chinese regulations run counter to the commitments China itself has made to the world community.

AARP does not think the solution is to regulate drug prices. We think there are market solutions.

It has to be done in an appropriate way, so that nobody thinks it is a backdoor approach to have intergovernmental regulation for something that ought not to be regulated,

I looked at his previous work and I was extremely impressed with his creativity, his eye for talent and his eye for lighting. He is totally in touch with what needs to be done to make great product and he won't sacrifice anything. He's a real perfectionist. It's exciting to have someone like him on our team.

I didn't think it was possible. We did not change anything about the role of the U.S. government. It's very significant.

anything that will create any problems for the private sector.

As far as I can tell, these discussions about Internet governance won't put one more computer or one more cell phone or one more anything into the hands of somebody who doesn't have it in Africa, Asia, South America or elsewhere,

The general consensus is a negotiated settlement would be in the best interest of the university.

The document is fabulous. There were proposals to create a governmental organization that might control many technical aspects of the Internet and, through this, content as well. This is now off the table. There is no change to the U.S. role, no change to ICANN.

We will not agree to the United Nations taking over management of the internet.

We will not agree to the UN taking over the management of the internet,

We will not agree to the U.N. taking over the management of the Internet, ... Some countries want that. We think that's unacceptable.

What's gonna happen is they're gonna say holy -- who is this guy that can raise this kind of money and everyone else will come and try to hire you,

We challenge our companies to leverage their global leadership by developing and implementing a set of meaningful best practices.

We will be looking at all of the proposals through the eyes of what they will do to freedom of expression.

It's a very shocking and profound change of the EU's position. The EU's proposal seems to represent an historic shift in the regulatory approach to the Internet from one that is based on private sector leadership to a government, top-down control of the Internet.