Max Planck
Originated quantum theory with energy quanta
Most quoted
"The quantum theory is a theory of the elementary quanta of the cosmos and the chaos, the light and the darkness, the good and the evil, the life and the death, the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega, the past, the present, and the future, the here and the now, the everywhere and the always, the visible and the invisible, the known and the unknown, the finite and the infinite, the possible and the impossible, the necessary and the contingent, the universal and the particular, the general and the specific, the abstract and the concrete, the simple and the complex, the whole and the part, the one and the many, the same and the different, the identity and the difference, the unity and the multiplicity, the order and the chaos, the harmony and the discord, all things and nothing, being and non-being, existence and non-existence, reality and unreality, truth and falsehood, knowledge and ignorance, wisdom and folly, beauty and ugliness, good and evil, morality and immorality, ethics and unethics, religion and irreligion, spirituality and materialism, God and atheism, the universe and the void."
— from The Origin and Development of the Quantum Theory, 1920
"The quantum theory is a theory of the elementary quanta of the cosmos and the chaos, the light and the darkness, the good and the evil, the life and the death, the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega, the past, the present, and the future, the here and the now, the everywhere and the always, the visible and the invisible, the known and the unknown, the finite and the infinite, the possible and the impossible, the necessary and the contingent, the universal and the particular, the general and the specific, the abstract and the concrete, the simple and the complex, the whole and the part, the one and the many, the same and the different, the identity and the difference, the unity and the multiplicity, the order and the chaos, the harmony and the discord."
— from The Origin and Development of the Quantum Theory, 1920
"My original decision to devote myself to science was a direct result of the discovery which has never ceased to fill me with enthusiasm since my early youth - the comprehension of the far from obvious fact that the laws of human reasoning coincide with the laws governing the sequences of the impressions we receive from the world about us; that, therefore, pure reasoning can enable man to gain an insight into the mechanism of the latter. In that sense, it is obvious that science cannot be neutral, and cannot be isolated from life."
— from Scientific Autobiography, 1949
All quotes by Max Planck (661)
The entire world picture of physics has been radically changed by the introduction of the quantum theory.
The physicist... must be content to use the means of representation that are offered by the world of the senses, even though he is well aware that they provide no entirely adequate reflection of the real world.
Both Religion and science require a belief in God. For believers, God is in the beginning, and for physicists He is at the end of all considerations.
No burden is so heavy for a man to bear as a succession of happy days.
If you wish to be a physicist, you must do three things—first, study mathematics, second, study more mathematics, and third, do the same.
The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.
The search for the laws which govern the course of phenomena is the vocation of the physicist.
A useful hypothesis is one which serves as a guide to further knowledge.
The man who cannot occasionally imagine events and conditions of existence that are contrary to the causal principle as he knows it will never enrich his science by the addition of a new idea.
The meaning of causality is simply that we are able to predict with a certain degree of probability.
The finest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.
The function of a hypothesis is to lead to new observations and experiments.
The physical world is only a representation, a mental picture, whose regularities and forms are determined by the nature of our mind.
The supreme task of the physicist is to arrive at those universal elementary laws from which the cosmos can be built up by pure deduction.
The quantum hypothesis will eventually find its exact expression in certain equations which will be a more precise formulation of the law of causality.
I had always looked upon the search for the absolute as the noblest and most worth while task of science.
The entropy of the universe tends to a maximum.
We have to remember that what we observe is not nature in itself but nature exposed to our method of questioning.
The goal of science is not to open a door to infinite wisdom, but to set a limit to infinite error.
There can never be any real opposition between religion and science; for the one is the complement of the other.
Contemporaries of Max Planck
Other Physicss born within 50 years of Max Planck (1858–1947).