Niels Bohr

Niels Bohr

"Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it."
29 Quotes
"Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it."
Niels Bohr Essays 1932-1957 on Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge (The Philosophical Writings of Niels Bohr, Vol. 2)
"Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future."
Niels Bohr
"Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future."
Niels Bohr
"When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. The poet, too, is not nearly so concerned with describing facts as with creating images."
Niels Bohr
"Technology has advanced more in the last thirty years than in the previous two thousand. The exponential increase in advancement will only continue."
Niels Bohr
"Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself its own solution. It forces us to change our thinking in order to find it."
Niels Bohr
"The opposite of a fact is falsehood, but the opposite of one profound truth may very well be another profound truth."
Niels Bohr
"While the finish given to our picture of the world by the theory of relativity has already been absorbed into the general scientific consciousness, this has scarcely occurred to the same extent with those aspects of the general problem of knowledge which have been elucidated by the quantum theory."
Niels Bohr
"Einstein, stop telling God what to do!"
Niels Bohr
"The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness."
Niels Bohr
"An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field."
Niels Bohr
"The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth."
Niels Bohr
"How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress."
Niels Bohr
"Your theory is crazy, but it's not crazy enough to be true."
Niels Bohr
"An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field."
Niels Bohr
"Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think."
Niels Bohr
"Every sentence I utter must be understood not as an affirmation but as a question.[A caution he gives his students, to be wary of dogmatism.]"
Niels Bohr
"[About describing atomic models in the language of classical physics:]We must be clear that when it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. The poet, too, is not nearly so concerned with describing facts as with creating images and establishing mental connections."
Niels Bohr
"The meaning of life consists in the fact that it makes no sense to say that life has no meaning."
Niels Bohr
"It is not enough to be wrong, one must also be polite."
Niels Bohr
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