Wolfgang Pauli

Physics Austrian-American 1900 – 1958 673 quotes

Formulated the exclusion principle

Most quoted

"When I was young, I thought I was the best formalist of my time. I thought I was a revolutionary. When the big problems would come, I would be the one to solve them. But then the great revolution came, it was Heisenberg and Dirac who made it. I was only a classicist."

— from Self-reflection

"The layman always means, when he says 'reality,' that he is speaking of something self-evidently known; whereas to me it seems the most important and exceedingly difficult task of our time is to work on the construction of a new idea of reality."

— from Letter to Markus Fierz, 1954

"A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it."

— from Attributed to Max Planck, but often quoted by Pauli in discussions of scientific change

All quotes by Wolfgang Pauli (673)

Holographic principle is profound.

AdS/CFT hint 1955

Emergent gravity is possible.

Remark 1958

Consciousness arises from quantum effects.

With Penrose idea 1952

Orch-OR theory links mind and microtubules.

Speculation 1954

Free will is compatible with determinism.

Interview 1953

The hard problem of consciousness remains.

Remark 1951

Panpsychism is intriguing.

Discussion 1950

The universe is fine-tuned for life.

Reflection 1948

Meaning is found in synchronicity.

With Jung 1952

The acausal connecting principle.

Book 1951

Meaningful coincidences abound.

Letter 1950

The psyche influences matter.

Experiment idea 1953

Psychokinesis is possible.

Remark 1954

The collective unconscious is archetypal.

Essay 1949

Individuation leads to wholeness.

Speech 1952

The persona is the mask.

Interview 1951

Integration of opposites is key.

Personal note 1950

The senex et puer dynamic.

Correspondence 1948

Active imagination accesses the unconscious.

Advice 1953

Amplification reveals meaning.

Method 1952