Hoyle's enduring insights into stars, nucleosynthesis, and the large-scale universe rank among the greatest achievements of 20th-century astrophysics. Moreover, his theories were unfailingly stimulating, even when they proved transient.

Fred Hoyle

Categorized in : Stars Century Achievement

It is a mistake to imagine that potentially great men are rare. It is the conditions that permit the promise of greatness to be fulfilled that are rare. What is so difficult to achieve is the cultural background that permits potential greatness to be converted into actual greatness.

greatness mistake men

The big bang theory requires a recent origin of the Universe that openly invites the concept of creation.

bangs creation bigs

Things are the way they are because they were the way they were. by Fred Hoyle

Things are the way they are because they were the way they were.

way

Once I had learnt my twelve times table (at the age of three) it... by Fred Hoyle

Once I had learnt my twelve times table (at the age of three) it was downhill all the way.

twelve three age

Words are like harpoons. Once they go in, they are very hard to p... by Fred Hoyle

Words are like harpoons. Once they go in, they are very hard to pull out.

hard

When I was young, the old regarded me as an outrageous young fellow, and now that I'm old the young regard me as an outrageous old fellow.

outrageous regard young

A superintellect has monkeyed with physics. by Fred Hoyle

A superintellect has monkeyed with physics.

physics

A junkyard contains all the bits and pieces of a Boeing 747, dismembered and in disarray. A whirlwind happens to blow through the yard. What is the chance that after its passage a fully assembled 747, ready to fly, will be found standing there? So small as to be negligible, even if a tornado were to blow through enough junkyards to fill the whole Universe.

yards pieces blow

The universe is a put-up job. by Fred Hoyle

The universe is a put-up job.

atheism universe jobs

It is emphatically the case that life could not arise spontaneously in a primeval soup of any kind.... Furthermore, no geological evidence indicates an organic soup ever existed on this planet. We may therefore with fairness call this scenario the myth of the pre-biotic soup.

fairness soup may

Earlier theories ... were based on the hypothesis that all the matter in the universe was created in one big bang at a particular time in the remote past. [Coining the "big bang" expression.]

expression science past

The man who voyages strange seas must of necessity be a little unsure of himself. It is the man with the flashy air of knowing everything, who is always with it, that we should beware of.

journey air men

I do not believe that anything really worthwhile will come out of the exploration of the slag heap that constitutes the surface of the moon...Nobody should imagine that the enormous financial budget of NASA implies that astronomy is now well supported.

financial moon believe

Some super-calculating intellect must have designed the properties of the carbon atom, otherwise the chance of my finding such an atom through the blind forces of nature would be utterly minuscule.

atoms chance would-be

Here we are in this wholly fantastic universe with scarcely a clue as to whether our existence has any real significance.

fantastic clue real

Religion is but a desperate attempt to find an escape from the truly dreadful situation in which we find ourselves. Here we are in this wholly fantastic universe with scarcely a clue as to whether our existence has any real significance. No wonder then that many people feel the need for some belief that gives them a sense of security, and no wonder that they become very angry with people like me who say that this is illusory.

real giving people

There are many ways of knocking electrons out of atoms. The simplest is to rub two surfaces together.

atoms together two

It is no more likely that our world has evolved out of chaos than that a hurricane, blowing through a junk yard, should create a Boeing.

junk yards our-world

The main efforts of investigators have been in papering over contradictions in the big bang theory, to build up an idea which has become ever more complex and cumbersome.

bangs effort ideas

It seems to be a characteristic of all great work that it creator... by Fred Hoyle

It seems to be a characteristic of all great work that it creators wear a cloak of imprecision.

cloaks great-work characteristics