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)

The world is a drama staged by the archetypes.

Interview 1951

Physics and psychology are two sides of the same coin.

Speech excerpt 1953

I have done a terrible thing: I have stabilized the archetype of the 'wise old man'.

Letter 1954

The neutrino is so small that it can pass through a mile of lead without hitting anything.

Professional observation 1930

In the beginning, God created the Pauli principle.

Witty remark 1925

The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.

Personal reflection 1940

Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination.

Speech 1935

The development of physics lies in the understanding of the unconscious.

Essay 1952

I am not a positivist, but I believe in the reality of the quantum world.

Interview 1945

The complementarity principle is the key to understanding quantum mechanics.

Major work 1927

What God has put together, let no man put asunder.

Remark on theory 1950

The field concept is indispensable in modern physics.

Book 1933

Relativity and quantum mechanics are the two pillars of modern physics.

Thesis 1921

The soul is the bridge between matter and spirit.

Personal letter 1953

In dreams, the archetypes reveal themselves.

Correspondence with Jung 1948

The mandala is a symbol of wholeness.

Essay 1952

Physics without psychology is incomplete.

Speech 1951

The exclusion principle governs the structure of matter.

Major paper 1925

I regret that I have but one life to give to physics.

Humor 1950

The neutrino hypothesis was born out of necessity.

Letter to Fermi 1930