Max Planck quotes - page 2

In other words, the fundamental principles and indispensable postulates of every genuinely productive science are not based on pure logic but rather on the metaphysical hypothesis - which no rules of logic can refute - that there exists an outer world which is entirely independent of ourselves. It is only through the immediate dictate of our consciousness that we know that this world exists. And that consciousness may to a certain degree be called a special sense. (Max Planck)
No matter where and how far we look, nowhere do we find a contradiction between religion and natural science. On the contrary, we find a complete concordance in the very points of decisive importance. Religion and natural science do not exclude each other, as many contemporaries of ours would believe or fear. They mutually supplement and condition each other. The most immediate proof of the compatibility of religion and natural science, even under the most thorough critical scrutiny, is the historical fact that the very greatest natural scientists of all times-men such as Kepler, Newton, Leibniz-were permeated by a most profound religious attitude. View quote
Max Planck
Again and again the imaginary plan on which one attempts to build up that order breaks down and then we must try another. This imaginative vision and faith in the ultimate success are indispensable. The pure rationalist has no place here. View quote
Max Planck
But science sets out confidently on the endeavor finally to know the thing in itself, and even though we realize that this ideal goal can never be completely reached, still we struggle on towards it untiringly. And we know that at every step of the way each effort will be richly rewarded. View quote
Max Planck
Truth never triumphs-its opponents just die out. View quote
Max Planck
The energy of a system is, therefore, sometimes briefly denoted as the faculty to produce external effects. View quote
Max Planck
I have always been deeply religiously disposed, but I do not believe in a personal God, not to mention a Christian God. View quote
Max Planck
When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. View quote
Max Planck
A new scientific truth does not generally triumph by persuading its opponents and getting them to admit their errors, but rather by its opponents gradually dying out and giving way to a new generation that is raised on it. ... An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: it rarely happens that Saul becomes Paul. What does happen is that its opponents gradually die out, and that the growing generation is familiarized with the ideas from the beginning: another instance of the fact that the future lies with the youth. View quote
Max Planck
Anybody who has been seriously engaged in scientific work of any kind realizes that over the entrance to the gates of the temple of science are written the words: 'Ye must have faith.' View quote
Max Planck
Ego is the immediate dictate of human consciousness. (Max Planck)
Whence come I and whither go I? That is the great unfathomable question, the same for every one of us. Science has no answer to it. View quote
Max Planck
An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: What does happen is that the opponents gradually die out. View quote
Max Planck
Both religion and natural science require a belief in God for their activities, to the former He is the starting point, and to the latter the goal of every thought process. To the former He is the foundation, to the latter, the crown of the edifice of every generalized world view. View quote
Max Planck