Niels Bohr Quotes & Sayings

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth. — Niels Bohr

Predictions are hard, especially abot the future. — Niels Bohr

When searching for harmony in life one must never forget that in the drama of existence we are ourselves both actors and spectators. — Niels Bohr

If anybody says he can think about quantum physics without getting giddy, that only shows he has not understood the first thing about them. — Niels Bohr

If you think you understand it, that only shows that you don't know the first thing about it. — Niels Bohr

Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself it's own solution. It forces us to change our thinking in order to find it. — Niels Bohr

It is the hallmark of any deep truth that its negation is also a deep truth — Niels Bohr

Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it. — Niels Bohr

You are not thinking, you are just being logical. — Niels Bohr

It is not enough to be wrong, one must also be polite. — Niels Bohr

It is a great pity that human beings cannot find all of their satisfaction in scientific contemplativeness. — Niels Bohr

The present state of atomic theory is characterized by the fact that we not only believe the existence of atoms to be proved beyond a doubt, but also we even believe that we have an intimate knowledge of the constituents of the individual atoms. — Niels Bohr

How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress. — Niels Bohr

And anyone who thinks they can talk about quantum theory without feeling dizzy hasn't yet understood the first thing about it. — Niels Bohr

When we measure something we are forcing an undetermined, undefined world to assume an experimental value. We are not measuring the world, we are creating it. — Niels Bohr

Using the word much as it is used in atomic physics to characterize the relationship between experience obtained by different experimental arrangements and visualized only by mutually exclusive ideas, we may truly say that different human cultures are complimentary to each other ... each such culture represents a harmonious balance of traditional conventions by means of which latent potentialities of human life unfold themselves in a way which reveals to us new aspects of its unlimited richness and variety. — Niels Bohr

It is very difficult to make an accurate prediction, especially about the future. — Niels Bohr

Of course I don't believe in it [pointing to horseshoe on his office wall]. But I understand that it brings you luck whether you believe in it or not. — Niels Bohr

Isolated material particles are abstractions, their properties being definable and observable only through their interaction with other systems . — Niels Bohr

We all know your idea is crazy. The question is whether it is crazy enough. — Niels Bohr

Rutherford is a man you can rely on; he comes regularly and enquires how things are going and talks about the smallest details - Rutherford is such an outstanding man and really interested in the work of all the people around him. — Niels Bohr

Physics is to be regarded not so much as the study of something a priori given, but rather as the development of methods of ordering and surveying human experience. In this respect our task must be to account for such experience in a manner independent of individual subjective judgement and therefore objective in the sense that it can be unambiguously communicated in ordinary human language. — Niels Bohr

One must always do what one really cannot. — Niels Bohr

Truth is something that we can attempt to doubt, and then perhaps, after much exertion, discover that part of the doubt is not justified. — Niels Bohr

Prediction is difficult, especially the future. — Niels Bohr

In our description of nature the purpose is not to disclose the real essence of the phenomena but only to track down, as far as possible, relations between the manifold aspects of our experience. — Niels Bohr

All rising curves that show unwelcome trends in human affairs will approach infinity if extended far enough, but it is we who dictate the curve and not vice versa. — Niels Bohr

Anyone not shocked by quantum mechanics has not yet understood it. — Niels Bohr

We are suspended in language. — Niels Bohr

It is, indeed, perhaps the greatest prospect of humanistic studies to contribute through an increasing knowledge of the history of cultural development to that gradual removal of prejudices which is the common aim of all science. — Niels Bohr

The old saying of the two kinds of truth. To the one kind belongs statements so simple and clear that the opposite assertion obviously could not be defended. The other kind, the so-called 'deep truths', are statements in which the opposite also contains deep truth. — Niels Bohr

Address to Albert Einstein: You are not thinking. You are merely being logical. — Niels Bohr

Truth and clarity are complementary — Niels Bohr

Every sentence I utter must be understood not as an affirmation, but as a question. — Niels Bohr

There are two sorts of truth: trivialities, where opposites are clearly absurd, and profound truths, recognised by the fact that the opposite is also a profound truth — Niels Bohr

A visitor to Niels Bohr's country cottage, noticing a horseshoe hanging on the wall, teasing the eminent scientist about this ancient superstition. Can it be true that you, of all people, believe it will bring you luck?'
'Of course not,' replied Bohr, 'but I understand it brings you luck whether you believe it or not.' — Niels Bohr

Some things are so serious, they can only be joked about. — Niels Bohr

Physics is the belief that a simple and consistent description of nature is possible. — Niels Bohr

If we couldn't laugh at ourselves, that would be the end of everything. — Niels Bohr

The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness. — Niels Bohr

Every valuable human being must be a radical and a rebel, for what he must aim at is to make things better than they are — Niels Bohr

In physics we deal with states of affairs much simpler than those of psychology and yet we again and again learn that our task is not to investigate the essence of things-we do not at all know what this would mean&mash;but to develop those concepts that allow us to speak with each other about the events of nature in a fruitful manner. — Niels Bohr

A physicist is just an atom's way of looking at itself. — Niels Bohr

Oh what idiots we have all been, this is just as it must be — Niels Bohr

Our task is not to penetrate the essence of things, the meaning of which we do not know anyway, but rather to develop concepts which allow us to talk in a productive way about phenomena in nature — Niels Bohr

The opposite of every great idea is another great idea. — Niels Bohr

The great extension of our experience in recent years has brought light to the insufficiency of our simple mechanical conceptions and, as a consequence, has shaken the foundation on which the customary interpretation of observation was based. — Niels Bohr

Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real. — Niels Bohr

There are trivial truths and there are great truths. The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false. The opposite of a great truth is also true. — Niels Bohr

There is no hope for any speculation that does not look absurd at first glance. — Niels Bohr

Predition is risky, especially of the future. — Niels Bohr

If you aren't confused by quantum mechanics, you haven't really understood it. — Niels Bohr

An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field. — Niels Bohr

Anybody who is not shocked by this subject has failed to understand it. [of quantum mechanics] — Niels Bohr

Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future. — Niels Bohr

You can recognize a small truth because its opposite is a falsehood. The opposite of a great truth is another truth. — Niels Bohr

Some subjects are so serious that one can only joke about them. — Niels Bohr

Sometimes the child in one behaves a certain way and the rest of oneself follows behind, slowly shaking its head. — Niels Bohr

In the great drama of existence we are audience and actors at the same time. — Niels Bohr

No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. — Niels Bohr

Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think — Niels Bohr

An independant reality in the ordinary physical sense can neither be ascribed to the phenomenon nor to the agencies of observation. — Niels Bohr

The meaning of life consists in the fact that it makes no sense to say that life has no meaning. — Niels Bohr

It is difficult to predict, especially the future. — Niels Bohr

The very nature of the quantum theory ... forces us to regard the space-time coordination and the claim of causality, the union of which characterizes the classical theories, as complementary but exclusive features of the description, symbolizing the idealization of observation and description, respectively. — Niels Bohr

We are trapped by language to such a degree that every attempt to formulate insight is a play on words. — Niels Bohr

If you have a correct statement, then the opposite of a correct statement is of course an incorrect statement, a wrong statement. But when you have a deep truth, then the opposite of a deep truth may again be a deep truth. — Niels Bohr

Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it. — Niels Bohr

I myself find the division of the world into an objective and a subjective side much too arbitrary. The fact that religions through the ages have spoken in images, parables, and paradoxes means simply that there are no other ways of grasping the reality to which they refer. But that does not mean that it is not a genuine reality. And splitting this reality into an objective and a. subjective side won't get us very far. — Niels Bohr

Nothing exists until it is measured. — Niels Bohr

Stop telling God what to do with his dice. — Niels Bohr

The measurement we get when we measure something is not a property of the thing measured. — Niels Bohr

What is that we human beings ultimately depend on? We depend on our words. We are suspended in language. Our task is to communicate experience and ideas to others. — Niels Bohr

There are some things so serious that you have to laugh at them. — Niels Bohr

[About describing atomic models in the language of classical physics:]
We must be clear that when it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. The poet, too, is not nearly so concerned with describing facts as with creating images and establishing mental connections. — Niels Bohr

A deep truth is a truth so deep that not only is it true but it's exact opposite is also true. — Niels Bohr

When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. The poet, too, is not nearly so concerned with describing facts as with creating images. — Niels Bohr

If quantum mechanics hasn't profoundly shocked you, you haven't understood it yet. — Niels Bohr

One thought spectra are marvellous, but it is not possible to make progress there. Just as if you have the wing of a butterfly then certainly it is very regular with the colors and so on, but nobody thought one could get the basis of biology from the coloring of the wing of a butterfly. — Niels Bohr

A person who wasn't outraged on first hearing about quantum theory didn't understand what had been said. — Niels Bohr

You must come to Copenhagen to work with us. We like people who can actually perform thought experiments! — Niels Bohr

We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question which divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct. My own feeling is that it is not crazy enough. — Niels Bohr

Perhaps I have found out a little about the structure of atoms. — Niels Bohr

It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how Nature is. Physics concerns what we say about Nature. — Niels Bohr

Physics is not about how the world is, it is about what we can say about the world — Niels Bohr

We depend on our words ... Our task is to communicate experience and ideas to others. We must strive continually to extend the scope of our description, but in such a way that our messages do not thereby lose their objective or unambiguous character ... We are suspended in language in such a way that we cannot say what is up and what is down. The word 'reality' is also a word, a word which we must learn to use correctly. — Niels Bohr

The opposite of a fact is falsehood, but the opposite of one profound truth may very well be another profound truth. — Niels Bohr

I go into the Upanishads to ask questions. — Niels Bohr

Your theory is crazy, but it's not crazy enough to be true. — Niels Bohr

An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field. — Niels Bohr

Accuracy and clarity of statement are mutually exclusive. — Niels Bohr

A physicist visits a colleague and notices a horseshoe hanging on the wall above the entrance. 'Do you really believe that a horseshoe brings luck?' he asks. 'No,' replies the colleague, 'but I've been told that it works even if you don't believe in it.' — Niels Bohr

Anyone who can contemplate quantum mechanics without getting dizzy hasn't understood it. — Niels Bohr

There are some things so serious you have to laugh at them. — Niels Bohr