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)
The only constant in life is change.
The greatest wisdom is knowing that you know nothing.
The universe is a mystery that will never be fully solved, and that is its beauty.
The human soul is a spark of the divine.
The greatest act of courage is to be oneself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else.
The universe is a vast and interconnected web of existence.
The pursuit of truth is a sacred endeavor.
The human mind is a bridge between the material and the spiritual.
The universe is a story, and we are all characters in it.
The greatest peace comes from within.
The universe is a constant process of becoming.
The human experience is a journey of self-discovery.
The greatest wisdom is to live in the present moment.
The human spirit is a flame that can never be extinguished.
The universe is a grand illusion, but a beautiful one.
One should not think about the 'meaning' of the wave function, but rather about the 'meaning' of the observables.
The electron has a 'spin' which is not a rotation in ordinary space.
It is not enough to be right, one must also be convincing.
If a theory is beautiful, it is probably true.
The problem of the interpretation of quantum mechanics is not a problem of physics, but a problem of language.
Contemporaries of Wolfgang Pauli
Other Physicss born within 50 years of Wolfgang Pauli (1900–1958).