Heisenberg, Werner

"Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing."

"Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it."

"The meaning of life consists in the fact that it makes sense to ask ourselves the purpose of life."

"Purity of heart will guide you to truth, but truth is not always pure."

"One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to prevent oneself from being lynched."

"I believe that the present phase of industrial civilization is leading the world to the edge of a precipice."

"The recognition of the inevitability of contradiction within the whole is the beginning of wisdom."

"What nature demands from us is not a stopping but a change of direction."

"No doubt, many of these gaps will be filled by future discoveries, but we may hope that the fundamental problems will remain unsolved."

"Mathematics may well be a science whose subject matter is abstract concepts, rather than space and time."

"Memory seems to be an important factor in leadership."

"One should never approach any subject as if all truth has been discovered."

"The idea that nature is determined down to the smallest detail is inconsistent with experience."

"We have to remember that what we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our methods of investigation."

"The revolution in physics has brought about a change in our understanding of human knowledge."

"What really matters is the personal touch—the ability to inspire others."

"The transition from the unobserved to the observed seems to be an essential feature of reality."

"One should not work on semiconductors, that is a filthy mess."

"The scientist only imposes on nature the requirement that it be logical."

"I think that the phase transition from the classical to the quantum world is the key to understanding modern physics."

"The parts of the universe that we can see are almost incomprehensibly large, and yet they are infinitesimal compared to the whole."

"Time is what prevents everything from happening at once."

"The stability of matter is a consequence of the quantum theory and cannot be derived from classical physics."

"In the discussion between Bohr and Einstein on quantum mechanics, neither of them had the whole truth."

"If nature were simple, it would have been understood long ago."

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."

"A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents, but rather because its opponents eventually die."

"The laws of nature are not commands but permissions."

"What cannot be measured does not exist in science, but existence transcends measurement."

"In the atomic world, causality is replaced by probability."