Imagination, beauty, and poetry in physics

"I am enough of the artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." — Albert Einstein, 1929 interview[[cite:1]]
"What I cannot create, I do not understand" — Richard Feynman, Journal of Cell Science on his blackboard quote[[cite:2]]
"It is by logic we demonstrate, it is by intuition we invent." — Henri Poincaré, Science and Method[[cite:3]]
"Physical laws should have mathematical beauty." — Paul Dirac, Moscow State University blackboard remark[[cite:4]]
"when it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry." — Niels Bohr, via Werner Heisenberg's memoir[[cite:5]][[cite:6]]

his blackboard at the time of his death in 1988

Physical laws should have mathematical beauty.

cannot be reconstructed literally after several decades\u2026.

Imagination, beauty, and poetry in physics

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