16 quotes
There are metaphysical problems, which cannot be disposed of by declaring them meaningless.
Natural Philosophy of Cause and Chance (1949)
It is true that many scientists are not philosophically minded and have hitherto shown much skill and ingenuity but little wisdom.
Natural Philosophy of Cause and Chance (1949)
I am now convinced that theoretical physics is actually philosophy.
The belief that there is only one truth and that oneself is in possession of it, seems to me the deepest root of all that is evil in the world.
Natural Philosophy of Cause and Chance (1949)
There are two objectionable types of believers: those who believe the incredible and those who believe that "belief" must be discarded and replaced by "the scientific method."
Natural Philosophy of Cause and Chance (1949)
Naturally, it is necessary to redefine what is meant.
Einstein's letters teach us impressively the fact that even an exact science like physics is based on fundamental beliefs.
Natural Philosophy of Cause and Chance (1949)
Every object that we perceive appears in innumerable aspects. The concept of the object is the invariant of all these aspects.
It has taught us new methods of thinking (complementarity), which are applicable far beyond physics.
All attempts to adapt our ethical code to our situation in the technological age have failed.
My Life & My Views (1968)
I believe there is no philosophical high-road in science, with epistemological signposts. No, we are in a jungle and find our way by trial and error, building our road behind us as we proceed.
Experiment and Theory in Physics (1943)
Intellect distinguishes between the possible and the impossible; reason distinguishes between the sensible and the senseless. Even the possible can be senseless.
The Voyage into the Dark (1961)
The continuity of our science has not been affected by all these turbulent happenings, as the older theories have always been included as limiting cases in the new ones.
The scientist's urge to investigate, like the faith of the devout or the inspiration of the artist, is an expression of mankind's longing for something fixed, something at rest in the universal whirl: God, Beauty, Truth.
Physics in my generation (1956)
If God has made the world a perfect mechanism, He has at least conceded so much to our imperfect intellect that in order to predict little parts of it, we need not solve innumerable differential equations, but can use dice with fair success.
Can we call something with which the concepts of position and motion cannot be associated in the usual way, a thing, or a particle? And if not, what is the reality which our theory has been invented to describe?
The answer to this is no longer physics, but philosophy.