A hand holding a brass magnifying glass over a small gray panel, revealing green detail in one corner.

Original artwork, not a still

Albert Einstein

The skeptic will say, ‘It may well be true that this system of equations is reasonable from a logical standpoint, but this does not prove that it corresponds to nature.’ You are right, dear skeptic. Experience alone can decide on truth.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The speaker grants that a set of equations can be perfectly logical and still fail to describe the real world. Consistency on paper is not proof. The speaker concedes the skeptic's point and says observation and experiment, not elegant reasoning alone, must ultimately decide what is true.

Context reviewed

Share this quote