How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"You're such an unrelenting scientist, Greg. You and Mother just don't inhabit the same universe. Just think what a shock you'd get if you were to die and find out that Mother was right all along. Still, I agree she's become a trifle eccentric lately." (5.13)
The phrase is used half-jokingly, but there is some truth to it. Markham and his mother-in-law don't inhabit the same universe because of where they find their individual truths. Granted, Markham's picture is likely closer to the "true" universe, but even then, he can't be said to have a complete picture.
Quote #2
"There's even a sentence in the original Wheeler-Feynmann paper—'It is only required that the description should be logically self-consistent.' By that they meant that our sense of the flow of time, always going in one direction, is a bias. The equations of physics don't share our prejudice—they're time-symmetric. The only standard we can impose on an experiment is whether it's logically consistent." (9.155)
Especially in the modern era, science is constantly showing us a picture of the world that seems untrue. The reason it seems untrue is because our everyday experiences just do not match up with what we are learning about the world. In this quote, the example is time, but we could provide another example in evolution or geology. Time on that grand of a scale is ridiculously difficult to grasp with our limited human brains.
Quote #3
Science came to nought in these days. This kitchen was the true local reference frame, the Galilean invariant. Yes. Watching his wife turn and mix the jars, Prussian rigidities standing on slabs of pine, he saw that it was the shelves which stood aslant now; the walls were right. (10.81)
Renfrew's truth shifts here. Originally he thought the shelves were straight, but now he has changed his mind to see the walls as straight. Now, in truth, the shelves stand correct, but he is coming to them with a different perspective than he does earlier. And so, the truth seems different, too. We have more to say on this over in the "Symbols" section.