Niels Bohr Quotes - Page 2

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

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

One must always do what one really cannot.

There are two sorts of truth: trivialities, where opposites are clearly absurd, and profound truths, recognised by the fact that the opposite is also a profound truth

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

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

Einstein, stop telling God what to do!

Accuracy and clarity of statement are mutually exclusive.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Oh what idiots we have all been, this is just as it must be

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.

It is not enough to be wrong, one must also be polite.

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

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.

It is very difficult to make an accurate prediction, especially about the future.

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

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.

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

Truth and clarity are complementary.