The highest court is in the end one's own conscience and conviction—that goes for you and for Einstein and every other physicist—and before any science there is first of all belief. For me, it is belief in a complete lawfulness in everything that happens.
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"The spiritual world is the true reality."
"The greatest joy of a scientist is to see a new truth emerge."
"The history of science is a history of errors."
"The true scientist is a man who is always asking questions, and never satisfied with the answers."
"The highest task of physics is to arrive at the knowledge of the human mind."
From a letter to Niels Bohr, emphasizing the role of personal conviction and belief in scientific endeavor.
Date: October 19, 1930
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Planck argues that scientific judgment ultimately rests on personal conscience and inner conviction, not external authority. Even the greatest physicists must answer to themselves about what they accept as true. Before any scientific work begins, a researcher must hold a foundational belief—an assumption taken on faith. For Planck, that starting belief is that the universe operates under complete, consistent laws, and this trust in orderly reality precedes and enables all investigation.
Planck founded quantum theory in 1900 by proposing energy comes in discrete packets, reluctantly overturning classical physics he deeply revered. A devout Lutheran who lectured on science and religion, he saw no conflict between faith and research. He endured Nazi persecution, lost his son Erwin to execution in 1945, and stood by Einstein when colleagues attacked relativity as 'Jewish physics.' His conviction in lawful order sustained him through personal catastrophe and scientific upheaval.
Planck spoke during physics' most turbulent era: relativity and quantum mechanics shattered Newtonian certainty, while Heisenberg's 1927 uncertainty principle suggested reality was fundamentally probabilistic. Einstein famously resisted this, insisting 'God does not play dice.' Meanwhile Nazi Germany politicized science, branding relativity as degenerate and pressuring physicists to conform. Planck's defense of individual conscience pushed back against both ideological coercion and the seeming abandonment of deterministic lawfulness that younger quantum theorists embraced.
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