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Who said, "Reality is not only stranger than we can conceive but stranger than we can conceive"?

Question #86001. Asked by tragic_flawed.
Last updated May 18 2021.

Related Trivia Topics: Quotes  
marklucky7
Answer has 3 votes
marklucky7

Answer has 3 votes.
i think the actual saying is this

Reality is not only stranger than we suppose but stranger than we can suppose.
- J. B. S. Haldane


Response last updated by CmdrK on May 18 2021.
Sep 18 2007, 3:56 AM
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zbeckabee star
Answer has 5 votes
Currently Best Answer
zbeckabee star
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11752 replies avatar

Answer has 5 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
Another variation credited to J. B. S. Haldane:

"The universe is not only stranger than we imagine; but stranger than we CAN imagine."

link http://www.vasulka.org/Kitchen/PDF_ExpandedCinema/part3.pdf


Response last updated by Terry on Aug 24 2016.
Sep 18 2007, 2:42 PM
HappyTechGuy
Answer has 5 votes
HappyTechGuy

Answer has 5 votes.
I believe both of these pre-date Haldane by around 10-20 years. He certainly should have been aware of Heisenberg and Eddington.

"Not only is the universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think." Werner Heisenberg in 'Across the Frontiers'

link http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/164668-not-only-is-the-universe-stranger-than-we-think-it

"Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine." Sir Arthur Eddington

link http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/27537.html (although there is some dispute as to the accuracy of this attribution)

Response last updated by looney_tunes on Aug 23 2016.
Mar 07 2010, 9:23 AM
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Terry star
Answer has 4 votes
Terry star
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24 year member
333 replies avatar

Answer has 4 votes.
What J.B.S. Haldane really said:

"I have no doubt that in reality the future will be vastly more surprising than anything I can imagine. Now my own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose."

Possible Worlds and Other Papers (1927), p. 286

Similar remarks that seem derived from this have in recent years been attributed to Arthur Stanley Eddington, as well as to Haldane, but without citations of an original source:

The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.

The world is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.

Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.

link https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._B._S._Haldane

Aug 24 2016, 1:29 PM
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