Niels Bohr Quotes

A physicist is just an atom's way of looking at itself.

Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real.

If quantum mechanics hasn't profoundly shocked you, you haven't understood it yet.

An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field.

When we measure something we are forcing an undetermined, undefined world to assume an experimental value. We are not measuring the world, we are creating it.

I go into the Upanishads to ask questions.

There are some things so serious you have to laugh at them.

The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness.

A physicist visits a colleague and notices a horseshoe hanging on the wall above the entrance. 'Do you really believe that a horseshoe brings luck?' he asks. 'No,' replies the colleague, 'but I've been told that it works even if you don't believe in it.'

Nothing exists until it is measured.

No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical.

Your theory is crazy, but it's not crazy enough to be true.

Einstein, stop telling God what to do!

Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself its own solution. It forces us to change our thinking in order to find it.

A deep truth is a truth so deep that not only is it true but it's exact opposite is also true.

Address to Albert Einstein: You are not thinking. You are merely being logical.

If anybody says he can think about quantum physics without getting giddy, that only shows he has not understood the first thing about them.

It is, indeed, perhaps the greatest prospect of humanistic studies to contribute through an increasing knowledge of the history of cultural development to that gradual removal of prejudices which is the common aim of all science.

Opposites are not contradictory but complementary.

If an idea does not appear bizarre, there is no hope for it.

How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress.

The measurement we get when we measure something is not a property of the thing measured.

When searching for harmony in life one must never forget that in the drama of existence we are ourselves both actors and spectators.

It is the hallmark of any deep truth that its negation is also a deep truth.

Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think.

The very nature of the quantum theory ... forces us to regard the space-time coordination and the claim of causality, the union of which characterizes the classical theories, as complementary but exclusive features of the description, symbolizing the idealization of observation and description, respectively.

Sometimes the child in one behaves a certain way and the rest of oneself follows behind, slowly shaking its head.

In the great drama of existence we are audience and actors at the same time.

It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how nature is. Physics concerns what we say about nature.

Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future.

Every valuable human being must be a radical and a rebel, for what he must aim at is to make things better than they are.

The meaning of life consists in the fact that it makes no sense to say that life has no meaning.

What is that we human beings ultimately depend on? We depend on our words. We are suspended in language. Our task is to communicate experience and ideas to others.

We depend on our words... Our task is to communicate experience and ideas to others. We must strive continually to extend the scope of our description, but in such a way that our messages do not thereby lose their objective or unambiguous character... We are suspended in language in such a way that we cannot say what is up and what is down. The word "reality" is also a word, a word which we must learn to use correctly.

There are trivial truths and the great truths. The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false. The opposite of a great truth is also true.

We are trapped by language to such a degree that every attempt to formulate insight is a play on words.

If we couldn't laugh at ourselves, that would be the end of everything.

Accuracy and clarity of statement are mutually exclusive.

A visitor to Niels Bohr's country cottage, noticing a horseshoe hanging on the wall, teasing the eminent scientist about this ancient superstition. "Can it be true that you, of all people, believe it will bring you luck?' 'Of course not,' replied Bohr, 'but I understand it brings you luck whether you believe it or not.'

No paradox, no progress.

If you think you understand it, that only shows that you don't know the first thing about it.

When asked ... [about] an underlying quantum world, Bohr would answer, 'There is no quantum world. There is only an abstract quantum physical description. It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how nature is. Physics concerns what we can say about Nature.'

The old saying of the two kinds of truth. To the one kind belongs statements so simple and clear that the opposite assertion obviously could not be defended. The other kind, the so-called 'deep truths', are statements in which the opposite also contains deep truth.

Physics is the belief that a simple and consistent description of nature is possible.

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.

One must always do what one really cannot.

The opposite of a fact is falsehood, but the opposite of one profound truth may very well be another profound truth.

The great extension of our experience in recent years has brought light to the insufficiency of our simple mechanical conceptions and, as a consequence, has shaken the foundation on which the customary interpretation of observation was based.

In our description of nature the purpose is not to disclose the real essence of the phenomena but only to track down, so far as it is possible, relations between the manifold aspects of our experience.

When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry.