Erwin Schrodinger — "The only constant in life is change."
The only constant in life is change.
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More from Erwin Schrodinger
"The only real valuable thing is intuition."
"The problem of the 'thing in itself' is not a problem that can be solved by science. It is a philosophical problem."
"The quantum theory is an 'unpleasant' theory, which I should have liked to assume to be true only if I were forced to do so by the facts."
"The scientific picture of the world is very successful, but it is incomplete. It leaves out something essential, something that is very close to us, namely, our own consciousness."
"The scientist only imposes the laws of nature on nature."
About Erwin Schrodinger (1887-1961)
Austrian physicist who shared the 1933 Nobel for the wave equation that bears his name and the famous cat thought-experiment. Closely associated with Werner Heisenberg (matrix-mechanics rival who reached the same physics by different math) and Albert Einstein (his pen-pal on quantum interpretation). For an intellectual contrast, see Niels Bohr, Danish physicist and architect of the Copenhagen interpretation — Schrödinger's cat thought-experiment was specifically designed to ridicule Bohr's 'observer-dependent reality' reading of quantum mechanics — Schrödinger thought the Copenhagen interpretation was absurd; the cat was meant as reductio ad absurdum.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Nothing in existence remains fixed — all things are in perpetual flux. Rather than treating change as disruptive, the quote reframes impermanence as the fundamental operating law of reality. Stability is an illusion; what appears solid is a process in motion. Accepting this frees a person from anxiety about loss and enables genuine engagement with the world as it is rather than as one wishes it to remain.
Relevance to Erwin Schrodinger
Schrödinger spent his career dismantling the idea of fixed, deterministic states. His wave mechanics replaced sharp classical particle trajectories with continuously evolving probability amplitudes — quantum systems exist in superposition until observed. He also lived this truth personally: fleeing Nazi-controlled Austria, he worked across Berlin, Dublin, and Graz. His unconventional domestic arrangements defied convention. For Schrödinger, change was not merely philosophical — it was the mathematical skeleton of physical reality.
The era
Schrödinger formulated wave mechanics in 1926, a decade of cascading disruption. Classical Newtonian physics was collapsing under quantum discoveries by Planck, Bohr, and Heisenberg. Simultaneously, European political order was fracturing — the Weimar Republic's instability preceded fascism's rise, forcing Jewish and dissident intellectuals into exile. The old certainties of both physics and civilization were dissolving together, making the acceptance of constant change less a platitude and more an urgent intellectual and personal survival posture.
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