Of course I am not religious—I don’t in fact see how any scientist who thinks at all deeply can be so ... - Philip W. Anderson

My belief is based on the fact that string theory is the first science in hundreds of years to be pursued in pre-Baconian fashion, without any adequate experimental guidance.

That Big Science culture in the USA, and similar groups elswhere, tended to have separate, direct access to government and hence to funding sources. It was independent to a great extent of the rest of science, of which it was never a majority component except in funding.

All I can say to the younger theorists is: don’t trust anyone over 45, except maybe me, and I’m not so sure about me.”