Max Born
Made fundamental contributions to quantum mechanics, particularly the Born rule for calculating probabilities.
Most quoted
"It is natural that a man should consider the work of his hands or his brain to be useful and important. Therefore nobody will object to an ardent experimentalist boasting of his measurements and rather looking down on the 'paper and ink' physics of his theoretical friend, who on his part is proud of his lofty ideas and despises the dirty fingers of the other."
— from Experiment and Theory in Physics, 1943
"The human race has today the means for annihilating itself—either in a fit of complete lunacy, i.e., in a big war, by a brief fit of destruction, or by a careless handling of atomic technology, through a slow process of poisoning and of deterioration in its genetic structure."
— from Letter, 1957
"The human race has today the means for annihilating itself—either in a fit of complete lunacy, i.e., in a big war, by a brief fit of destruction, or by careless handling of atomic technology, through a slow process of poisoning and of deterioration in its genetic structure."
— from Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge, 1957
All quotes by Max Born (371)
The release of atomic power has changed everything except our way of thinking.
The hope that nuclear weapons would make war impossible has proved to be an illusion.
The ethical value of science is not in the discoveries themselves, but in the way they are used.
The true spirit of science is the spirit of adventure.
The wave function is a description of possibilities, not of actualities.
The world of the atom is a world of chance and probability.
The more successful the quantum theory is, the sillier it looks.
Theoretical physics is the attempt to understand reality by constructing mathematical models.
The history of physics is the history of the gradual removal of prejudices.
The idea of causality is a rule for the human understanding, not a law of nature.
We are part of nature, and our knowledge is a part of nature describing itself.
Contemporaries of Max Born
Other Physicss born within 50 years of Max Born (1882–1970).