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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.

— Werner Heisenberg Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science (1958)

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More quotes by Werner Heisenberg

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)

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All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.

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The great artists are the ones who dare to entitle to beauty things so natural that when they're seen afterward, people say: Why did I never realize before that this too was beautiful?

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A genuine work of art must mean many things; the truer its art, the more things it will mean.

George MacDonald The Fantastic Imagination (1893)

Were art to redeem man, it could do so only by saving him from the seriousness of life and restoring him to an unexpected boyishness.

José Ortega y Gasset The Dehumanization of Art and Ideas about the Novel (1925)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Werner Heisenberg (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.