Werner Heisenberg quotes

Werner Heisenberg was a German theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to quantum mechanics. His formulation of the uncertainty principle had a profound impact on modern physics. He played a crucial role in the development of quantum theory and remains one of the most influential scientists of the twentieth century. Here are 52 of his quotes:

In general, scientific progress calls for no more than the absorption and elaboration of new ideas - and this is a call most scientists are happy to heed.

Werner Heisenberg

Quantum theory provides us with a striking illustration of the fact that we can fully understand a connection though we can only speak of it in images and parables.

Werner Heisenberg

I think that modern physics has definitely decided in favor of Plato. In fact the smallest units of matter are not physical objects in the ordinary sense; they are forms, ideas which can be expressed unambiguously only in mathematical language.

Werner Heisenberg

The more precise the measurement of position, the more imprecise the measurement of momentum, and vice versa.

Werner Heisenberg

Every experiment destroys some of the knowledge of the system which was obtained by previous experiments.

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.

Werner Heisenberg

The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you.

Werner Heisenberg

Whenever we proceed from the known into the unknown we may hope to understand, but we may have to learn at the same time a new meaning of the word "understanding."

Werner Heisenberg

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.

Werner Heisenberg

Of course, we all know that our own reality depends on the structure of our consciousness; we can objectify no more than a small part of our world. But even when we try to probe into the subjective realm, we cannot ignore the central order...In the final analysis, the central order, or 'the one' as it used to be called and with which we commune in the language of religion, must win out.

Werner Heisenberg

The solution of the difficulty is that the two mental pictures which experiment lead us to form - the one of the particles, the other of the waves - are both incomplete and have only the validity of analogies which are accurate only in limiting cases.

Werner Heisenberg

Every word or concept, clear as it may seem to be, has only a limited range of applicability.

Werner Heisenberg

The problems of language here are really serious. We wish to speak in some way about the structure of the atoms. But we cannot speak about atoms in ordinary language.

Werner Heisenberg

Natural science, does not simply describe and explain nature; it is part of the interplay between nature and ourselves.

Werner Heisenberg

Some subjects are so serious that one can only joke about them.

Werner Heisenberg

The reality we can put into words is never reality itself.

Werner Heisenberg

The atoms in the philosophy of do not move merely by chance. Leucippus seems to have believed in complete determinism, since he is known to have said: "Naught happens for nothing, but everything from a ground and of necessity." The atomists did not give any reason for the original motion of the atoms, which just shows that they thought of a causal description of the atomic motion; causality can only explain later events by earlier events, but it can never explain the beginning.

Werner Heisenberg

After these conversations with Tagore some of the ideas that had seemed so crazy suddenly made much more sense. That was a great help for me.

Werner Heisenberg

[T]he atoms or elementary particles themselves are not real; they form a world of potentialities or possibilities rather than one of things or facts.

Werner Heisenberg

Not only is the Universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think.

Werner Heisenberg

After a great war, history is written by the victors and legends develop which glorify them.

Werner Heisenberg

There is an enormous difference between modern science and Greek philosophy, and that is just the empiristic attitude... Since the time of Galileo and Newton, modern science has been based upon a detailed study of nature and upon the postulate that only such statements should be made, as have been verified or at least can be verified by experiment. The idea that one can single out some events from nature by an experiment... to find out what is the constant law in the continuous change, did not occur to the Greek philosophers. Therefore, modern science has from its beginning stood on a much more modest, but at the same time much firmer, basis than ancient philosophy. Therefore, the statements of modern physics are in some way meant much more seriously than the statements of Greek philosophy.

Werner Heisenberg