Neither the phrase nor its application to quantum physics originated with Gell-Mann, but a 1956 paper by him contains the first published use of the phrase as a description of quantum physics. Gell-Mann used it to describe the state of particle physics around the time he was formulating the Eightfold Way, a precursor to the quark -model of hadrons. According to the second edition of Strange Beauty: Murray Gell-Mann & the Revolution in Physics Gell-Mann incorrectly attributed the quote to George Orwell in a letter to the astrophysicist Jeremiah Ostriker.