Wolfgang Pauli
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)
I am a man of science, but I am also a man of faith.
The most beautiful theory is the one that is simple and elegant.
I am not afraid to be wrong.
The most important thing is to be open-minded.
I am a man of peace, but I am also a man of war.
The most important thing is to be persistent.
I am a man of reason, but I am also a man of intuition.
The most important thing is to be humble.
I am a man of the past, but I am also a man of the future.
The most important thing is to be passionate.
I am a man of science, but I am also a man of art.
The most important thing is to be creative.
I am a man of the world, but I am also a man of the spirit.
The most important thing is to be curious.
I am a man of thought, but I am also a man of action.
The most important thing is to be independent.
I am a man of reason, but I am also a man of emotion.
The most important thing is to be original.
I am a man of the mind, but I am also a man of the heart.
The most important thing is to be true to yourself.
Contemporaries of Wolfgang Pauli
Other Physicss born within 50 years of Wolfgang Pauli (1900–1958).