Werner Heisenberg

"God is in the details of the mathematics, not in the assumptions."

"The deepest principle of existence is cause and effect."

"When faced with a difficult problem, one should never try to solve it by force."

"The uncertainty principle refers to the degree of freedom we have in preparing an initial state and in measuring the final state."

"I think the distinction between past, present and future is only an illusion."

"Every atom belonging to you in this moment has come from stars, and will go to stars again."

"The transition from the observed facts to the general principles can take many forms, but the final result is always the same."

"One should distinguish between the laws of nature and our knowledge of them."

"In the small world of atomic physics, everything may not be as it appears to be."

"Quantum mechanics has been found correct because we can predict what will happen."

"The first reactions to quantum theory were like the reactions to Darwin's theory of evolution."

"The atoms are like a miniature solar system with the nucleus as the sun."

"Reality is merely an illusion, although a very persistent one."

"The more we know about the atomic world, the more strange it seems."

"What is the world made of? The answer has changed as physics advanced."

"The principle of scientific parsimony demands that we employ the simplest consistent model."

"In German universities, very different kinds of people gather, but all are united by the desire to understand."

"The atoms are not things in themselves; they are, as it were, holes in the structure of the world."

"The interaction between observer and object causes unpredictable changes in the system being observed."

"I believe that the present phase of human society cannot continue without a new kind of man."

"During the darkest times in history, people have had to accept the inevitability of suffering."

"The true foundation of our science is sympathy for all living things."

"What can we know about the structure of atoms? We can only know what our experiments tell us."

"The laws of quantum mechanics are applied to microscopic systems, not to large objects."

"I sometimes wonder if the atoms are as real as I once thought they were."

"The relationship between observer and observed is the central point of quantum theory."

"In the framework of our present knowledge, we must say that the nuclear force has no classical analogue."

"Anybody can see that it is impossible to measure position and momentum with arbitrary accuracy."

"If you wish to learn from theoretical physicists anything about the methods of theoretical physics, you will be led up the garden path."

"The atoms are a heuristic principle for understanding the world, not a description of reality."