“A theory has only the alternative of being right or wrong. A model has a third possibility: it may be right, but irrelevant.”— Manfred Eigen
“All the econometric models that are used for forecasting are also used for policy analysis.”— Lawrence R. Klein
“Thus we are led to the conception of a cubical atom with an electron at each corner.”— Gilbert Newton Lewis
“I think that the climate system is a lot more resilient and stable than the climate models suggest.”— Roy Spencer
“The theory of economics is a mill that will grind out results that are logically implicit in the assumptions that are put into it.”— George Stigler
“One of the most insidious and nefarious properties of scientific models is their tendency to take over, and sometimes supplant, the reality they are supposed to represent.”— Erwin Chargaff
“I am never content until I have constructed a mechanical model of the subject I am studying. If I can make a mechanical model, I can understand it.”— Lord Kelvin
“A map is not the territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness.”— Alfred Korzybski
“The sciences do not try to explain, they hardly even try to interpret, they mainly make models.”— John von Neumann
“What matters is that lives do not serve as models; only stories do that. And it is a hard thing to make up stories to live by.”— Carolyn Heilbrun
“The climate models are programmed to show warming. They are a computer game, not a scientific instrument.”— Christopher Monckton
“A scientific theory is just a mathematical model we make to describe our observations: it exists only in our minds.”— Roger Penrose