Quotes by Werner Heisenberg

About Werner Heisenberg:

Werner Karl Heisenberg is best known. Heisenberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1932 "for the creation of quantum mechanics". He also made important contributions to the theories of the hydrodynamics of turbulent flows, the atomic nucleus, ferromagnetism, cosmic rays, and subatomic particles, and he was instrumental in planning the first West German nuclear reactor at Karlsruhe, together with a research reactor in Munich, in 1957. Considerable controversy surrounds his work on atomic research during World War II.
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Not only is the Universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think.

Werner Heisenberg

If we wanted to construct a basic philosophical attitude from these scientific utterances of 's, at first we would be inclined to infer from them an extreme rationalism and a fundamentally skeptical point of view. In reality however, behind this outw...

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

Whether we like it or not, modern ways are going to alter and in part destroy traditional customs and values.

Werner Heisenberg

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

Werner Heisenberg

What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.

Werner Heisenberg

The violent reaction on the recent development of modern physics can only be understood when one realises that here the foundations of physics have started moving; and that this motion has caused the feeling that the ground would be cut from science.

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

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

I remember discussions with which went through many hours till very late at night and ended almost in despair; and when at the end of the discussion I went alone for a walk in the neighbouring park I repeated to myself again and again the question: ?

Werner Heisenberg

An expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes that can be made in his subject, and how to avoid them.

Werner Heisenberg

The positivists have a simple solution: the world must be divided into that which we can say clearly and the rest, which we had better pass over in silence. But can anyone conceive of a more pointless philosophy, seeing that what we can say clearly a...

Werner Heisenberg

I think that modern physics has definitely decided in favor of . 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

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

My mind was formed by studying philosophy, and that sort of thing.

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

In the history of science, ever since the famous trial of Galileo, it has repeatedly been claimed that scientific truth cannot be reconciled with the religious interpretation of the world. Although I an now convinced that scientific truth is unassail...

Werner Heisenberg

Revere those things beyond science which really matter and about which it is so difficult to speak.

Werner Heisenberg

Author Bio

  • NameWerner Heisenberg
  • DescriptionGerman theoretical physicist
  • AliasesWerner Karl Heisenberg; Heisenberg; Werner K. Heisenberg
  • BornDecember 5, 1901
  • DiedFebruary 1, 1976
  • CountryGerman Empire; Weimar Republic; Nazi Germany; West Germany
  • ProfessionTheoretical Physicist; Author; Mountaineer
  • AwardsOrder Of Merit For Arts And Science; Bavarian Order Of Merit; Niels Bohr International Gold Medal; Grand Order Of Merit With Star And Shoulder-Sash; Nobel Prize In Physics; Max Planck Medal