# Quote — Lee Smolin, Three Roads to Quantum Gravity

> The first principle of cosmology must be 'There is nothing outside the universe'. This is not to exclude religion or mysticism... But if it is knowledge that we desire... we need to seek answers to questions about the things we can see... only things that exist in the universe.

- Author: [Lee Smolin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lee-smolin.md)
- Book: [Three Roads to Quantum Gravity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lee-smolin/three-roads-to-quantum-gravity.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lee_Smolin#Three_Roads_to_Quantum_Gravity_(2000)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/lee-smolin/three-roads-to-quantum-gravity/the-first-principle

## More from this book

> Time is described only in terms of change in the network of relationships that describes space.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lee-smolin/three-roads-to-quantum-gravity/time-is-described.md)

> There is no time apart from change. There is no such thing as a clock outside the network of changing relationships. ...one can only compare how fast one thing is happening with the rate of some other process.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lee-smolin/three-roads-to-quantum-gravity/there-is-no-time.md)

> We are the result of processes much more complicated than the small aspects of our lives and societies over which we have some control.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lee-smolin/three-roads-to-quantum-gravity/we-are-the.md)