Erwin Schrodinger

Wave mechanics

Modern influential 158 sayings

Sayings by Erwin Schrodinger

Even if I should be right in this, I do not know whether my way of approach is really the best and simplest. But, in short, it was mine.

Mid 20th century — A self-aware and slightly defiant statement on his scientific methodology.
Humorous Unverifiable

We are told such a number as the square root of 2 worried Pythagoras and his school almost to exhaustion. Being used to such queer numbers from early childhood, we must be careful not to form a low idea of the mathematical intuition of these ancient sages; their worry was highly credible.

Mid 20th century — Reflecting on historical mathematical discoveries and their initial reception.
Humorous Unverifiable

By the way, I never realized that to be nonbelieving, to be an atheist, was a thing to be proud of. It went without saying as it were.

Mid 20th century — Reflecting on his personal views on religion/atheism.
Humorous Unverifiable

The greatest American art form is the comic strip.

Unknown — Reported anecdote
Humorous Unverifiable

What is life? The answer to this question is not what one expects.

1944 — What Is Life?
Humorous Unverifiable

The scientist only imposes the laws of nature on nature.

1954 — Nature and the Greeks
Humorous Unverifiable

We do not belong to this material world that science constructs for us. We are not in it; we are outside. We are only spectators. The reason why we believe that we are in it, that we belong to the picture, is that our bodies are in the picture. Our bodies belong to it. Not only my own body, but those of my friends, also of my dog and cat and horse, and of all the other people and animals. And this is my only means of communicating with them.

1954 — From 'Nature and the Greeks', expressing a radical separation of consciousness from the material wor…
Shocking Unverifiable

Consciousness cannot be accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else.

1958 — From 'Mind and Matter', a strong philosophical stance on the primacy of consciousness.
Shocking Unverifiable

The total number of minds in the universe is one.

1984 (book published, quote likely from earlier writings) — From 'Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the World's Great Physicists', a highly controversial …
Shocking Confirmed

This life of yours which you are living is not merely a piece of this entire existence, but in a certain sense the whole.

Unknown — A profound statement related to his monistic views, suggesting an individual's life encompasses the …
Shocking Unverifiable

I am born into an environment — I know not whence I came nor whither I go nor who I am.

Unknown — Expressing a deep existential uncertainty about self and origin.
Shocking Unverifiable

The plurality that we perceive is only an appearance; it is not real. Vedantic philosophy... has sought to clarify it by a number of analogies.

1944 (What is Life? published) — From 'What is Life?', revealing his embrace of Vedantic philosophy and its non-dualistic view of rea…
Shocking Unverifiable

I am no friend of probability theory, I have hated it from the first moment when our dear friend Max Born gave it birth.

Unknown, likely after 1926 when Born's interpretation emerged — Expressing a strong, almost emotional, rejection of a core aspect of quantum mechanics (the probabil…
Shocking Unverifiable

The reason why our sentient, percipient and thinking ego is met nowhere within our scientific world picture can easily be indicated in seven words: because it is itself that world picture.

1944 — From 'What is Life?', a deep philosophical insight into the nature of the observer and its relations…
Shocking Unverifiable

Our [Western] science has cut itself off from an adequate understanding of the Subject of Cognizance, of the mind.

Unknown, likely from his philosophical writings — A critique of Western scientific methodology and its perceived limitations in understanding consciou…
Shocking Unverifiable

The present is the only thing that has no end.

Unknown — A philosophical reflection on the nature of time and existence.
Shocking Unverifiable

Quantum physics thus reveals a basic oneness of the universe.

Unknown, likely from his philosophical writings — A statement connecting quantum mechanics to a more unified, holistic view of existence.
Shocking Unverifiable

I insist upon the view that 'all is waves'.

1989 (book published, quote from earlier writings) — From 'Schrödinger: Life and Thought', expressing his strong preference for a wave-based interpretati…
Shocking Unverifiable

What we observe as material bodies and forces are nothing but shapes and variations in the structure of space.

1954 — From 'Nature and the Greeks', a philosophical statement on the fundamental nature of reality.
Shocking Unverifiable

It is not possible that this unity of knowledge, feeling and choice which you call your own should have sprung into being from nothingness at a given moment not so long ago; rather this knowledge, feeling and choice are essentially eternal and unchangeable and numerically one in all men, nay in all sensitive beings.

1944 — From 'What is Life?', a profound statement on the timeless and unified nature of consciousness.
Shocking Unverifiable