Annals of academic put-downs

Prayer may not be very efficient when compared to celestial mechanics, but it surely holds its own vis-a-vis some parts of economics.
— Paul Feyerabend

Quote taken from this post by John Horgan, who reads Philip Ball’s Nature article on econophysics, and asks “can economics ever be like physics?” Horgan is convinced that the answer is “no”. Do read Horgan’s post; it has an interesting discussion on the utility of physics ideas and models in social sciences.