# Help ID this quote please.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-quote-please/732347
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 23, 2015, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-quote-please/732347 "2015-09-23T22:03:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2015, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-quote-please/732347/1 "2015-09-23T22:03:50Z")
I can’t remember it verbatim, but the jist goes something like this:
A smart man can look at a watch and know, that inside that watch are gears that make the hand behave in the way that they do. A smarter man can look at a watch and imagine a way to set up those gears to make the watch behave the way that it does. But even if he does, that does not mean that is the same design used in the watch he is looking at.
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### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2015, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-quote-please/732347/2 "2015-09-25T12:58:53Z")
> [@Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld](#):
>
> In our endeavor to understand reality we are somewhat like a man trying to understand the mechanism of a closed watch. He sees the face and the moving hands, even hears its ticking, but he has no way of opening the case. If he is ingenious he may form some picture of a mechanism which could be responsible for all the things he observes, but he may never be quite sure his picture is the only one which could explain his observations.
cite: [Albert Einstein - Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein)
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### Author:  [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2015, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-quote-please/732347/3 "2015-09-26T16:21:15Z")
Thank you! I’m just now seeing this. No idea why this thread dropped off my CP page.