Niels Bohr Quotes

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

Accuracy and clarity of statement are mutually exclusive.

Predition is risky, especially of the future.

If you have a correct statement, then the opposite of a correct statement is of course an incorrect statement, a wrong statement. But when you have a deep truth, then the opposite of a deep truth may again be a deep truth.

You must come to Copenhagen to work with us. We like people who can actually perform thought experiments!

Anyone not shocked by quantum mechanics has not yet understood it.

The present state of atomic theory is characterized by the fact that we not only believe the existence of atoms to be proved beyond a doubt, but also we even believe that we have an intimate knowledge of the constituents of the individual atoms.

Our task is not to penetrate the essence of things, the meaning of which we do not know anyway, but rather to develop concepts which allow us to talk in a productive way about phenomena in nature

We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question which divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct. My own feeling is that it is not crazy enough.

Anyone who can contemplate quantum mechanics without getting dizzy hasn't understood it.

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

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

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

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.

There is no hope for any speculation that does not look absurd at first glance.

One must always do what one really cannot.

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

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

Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it.

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

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

You can recognize a small truth because its opposite is a falsehood. The opposite of a great truth is another truth.

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.

Prediction is difficult, especially the future.

One thought spectra are marvellous, but it is not possible to make progress there. Just as if you have the wing of a butterfly then certainly it is very regular with the colors and so on, but nobody thought one could get the basis of biology from the coloring of the wing of a butterfly.

Of course I don't believe in it [pointing to horseshoe on his office wall]. But I understand that it brings you luck whether you believe in it or not.

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.

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

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

Opposites are not contradictory but complementary.

I go into the Upanishads to ask questions.

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

In physics we deal with states of affairs much simpler than those of psychology and yet we again and again learn that our task is not to investigate the essence of things-we do not at all know what this would mean&mash;but to develop those concepts that allow us to speak with each other about the events of nature in a fruitful manner.

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

Nothing exists until it is measured.

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

The opposite of every great idea is another great idea.

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

And anyone who thinks they can talk about quantum theory without feeling dizzy hasn't yet understood the first thing about it.

Truth and clarity are complementary.

Predictions are hard, especially abot the future.

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

Truth is something that we can attempt to doubt, and then perhaps, after much exertion, discover that part of the doubt is not justified.

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

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

Anybody who is not shocked by this subject has failed to understand it. [of quantum mechanics]

Every sentence I utter must be understood not as an affirmation, but as a question.

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.