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)

Quantum field theory is the future of physics.

Professional observation 1945

The observer effect is not an illusion; it is fundamental.

Debate with Bohr 1927

Life is a journey through the collective unconscious.

Personal reflection 1954

The Tao of physics is the unity of opposites.

Interview 1953

Particles are excitations of the field.

Book 1934

I have always been fascinated by the number 137.

Personal remark 1950

The fine structure constant is a mystery.

Letter 1946

Symmetry is the key to understanding nature.

Major work 1930

The spin of the electron is intrinsic.

Paper 1925

Causality is an illusion in the quantum world.

Speech 1927

The archetypes are eternal.

Essay 1952

Dreams are the royal road to the unconscious.

Correspondence 1948

The self is the center of the psyche.

Interview 1951

Individuation is the process of becoming whole.

Letter 1953

The shadow must be integrated.

Personal note 1950

Anima and animus are the bridges to the opposite sex.

Essay 1949

The collective unconscious unites humanity.

Speech 1952

Synchronicity defies causality.

Book 1951

The Pauli-Jung conjecture links mind and matter.

Correspondence 1952

Physics is the study of the manifestation of the psyche.

Interview 1954