From the beginning of physics, there have been those who imagined they
would be the last generation to face the unknown. Physics has always
seemed to its practitioners to be almost complete. This complacency is
shattered only during revolutions, when honest people are forced to admit
that they don"t know the basics. But even revolutionaries still imagine that the
big idea — the one that will tie it all up and end the search for knowledge —
lies just around the corner.
                Lee Smolin, in The Trouble With Physics