Time & Perspective Quote by Felix Bloch

A scientist signing off with a benediction can feel almost disarming: the voice of measurement and proof briefly steps into the register of ceremony and hope. Felix Bloch, best known for work that helped define modern physics, doesn’t end with a theorem or a warning about error bars. He ends with a wish. The intent is plainly valedictory, but the move is strategic: it softens authority into kinship. “Thanking you once more” signals a formal relationship - mentor to student, senior to junior, laureate to audience - yet the repetition of thanks nudges it toward intimacy, like someone who suspects a single “thank you” won’t cover the debt.

The subtext is a quiet defense of aspiration inside a culture that can sound allergic to it. In scientific life, “dreams” are permissible only when translated into “problems,” “programs,” or “hypotheses.” Bloch keeps the forbidden word and pairs it with the most human conditional: “may they come true.” That “may” matters. It admits contingency, luck, timing, the messy inputs that no amount of brilliance can fully control. Coming from someone who lived through the upheavals of the 20th century and the displacement that shaped many European scientists, it lands as more than greeting-card uplift; it’s an acknowledgment that futures are built under pressure.

Contextually, it reads like a commencement note or retirement letter where professional success is not the only metric. Bloch offers permission: pursue ambition without pretending it’s purely rational, and accept that even the best plans need grace.