34 quotes
There is a fundamental error in separating the parts from the whole, the mistake of atomizing what should not be atomized. Unity and complementarity constitute reality.
Light and matter are both single entities, and the apparent duality arises in the limitations of our language.
We have to remember that what we observe is not nature herself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.
Physics and Philosophy (1958)
The more precise the measurement of position, the more imprecise the measurement of momentum, and vice versa.
The existing scientific concepts cover always only a very limited part of reality, and the other part that has not yet been understood is infinite.
Physics and Philosophy (1958)
After a great war, history is written by the victors and legends develop which glorify them.
An expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes that can be made in his subject, and how to avoid them.
After these conversations with Tagore some of the ideas that had seemed so crazy suddenly made much more sense. That was a great help for me.
Every experiment destroys some of the knowledge of the system which was obtained by previous experiments.
Any concepts or words which have been formed in the past through the interplay between the world and ourselves are not really sharply defined with respect to their meaning: that is to say, we do not know exactly how far they will help us in finding our way in the world.
Physics and Philosophy (1958)
Art is always an idealization; the ideal is different from reality—at least from the reality of the shadows, as Plato would have put it—but idealization is necessary for understanding.
Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science (1958)
Can nature possibly be so absurd as it seemed to us in these atomic experiments?
Physics and Philosophy (1958)
Whenever we proceed from the known into the unknown we may hope to understand, but we may have to learn at the same time a new meaning of the word "understanding."
Physics and Philosophy (1958)
I was lucky enough to look over the good Lord's shoulder while He was at work.
Elisabeth Heisenberg (1984)
In general, scientific progress calls for no more than the absorption and elaboration of new ideas — and this is a call most scientists are happy to heed.
Physics and Beyond : Encounters and Conversation (1971)
If one finds a difficulty in a calculation which is otherwise quite convincing, one should not push the difficulty away; one should rather try to make it the centre of the whole thing.
I think that modern physics has definitely decided in favor of Plato. In fact the smallest units of matter are not physical objects in the ordinary sense; they are forms, ideas which can be expressed unambiguously only in mathematical language.
Das Naturgesetz und die Struktur der Materie (1967)
Even for the physicist the description in plain language will be the criterion of the degree of understanding that has been reached.
Physics and Philosophy (1958)
Therefore, the mathematical forms that represent the elementary particles will be solutions of some eternal law of motion for matter.
Physics and Philosophy (1958)
The elementary particles are certainly not eternal and indestructible units of matter, they can actually be transformed into each other.
Physics and Philosophy (1958)