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The problems of language here are really serious. We wish to speak in some way about the structure of the atoms. But we cannot speak about atoms in ordinary language.

From Werner Heisenberg

What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.

From Werner Heisenberg

The solution of the difficulty is that the two mental pictures which experiment lead us to form - the one of the particles, the other of the waves - are both incomplete and have only the validity of analogies which are accurate only in limiting cases.

From Werner Heisenberg

Natural science, does not simply describe and explain nature; it is part of the interplay between nature and ourselves.

From Werner Heisenberg

It is generally believed that our science is empirical and that we draw our concepts and our mathematical constructs from the empirical data. If this were the whole truth, we should, when entering into a new field, introduce only such quantities as can directly be observed, and formulate natural laws only by means of these quantities.

From Werner Heisenberg

The end of the First World War had thrown Germany's youth into great turmoil. The reins of power had fallen from the hands of a deeply disillusioned older generation, and the younger ones drew together in larger and smaller groups to blaze new paths or, at least, to discover a new star to steer by.

From Werner Heisenberg

Every word or concept, clear as it may seem to be, has only a limited range of applicability.

From Werner Heisenberg

The violent reaction on the recent development of modern physics can only be understood when one realises that here the foundations of physics have started moving; and that this motion has caused the feeling that the ground would be cut from science.

From Werner Heisenberg

The German physicists knew at least so much about the manufacture and construction of atomic bombs that it was clear to them that the manufacture of bombs in Germany could not succeed during the war. For this reason, they were spared the moral decision whether they should make an atomic bomb, and they had only worked on the uranium engine.

From Werner Heisenberg

Our house was destroyed in 1943, and I moved the family to a cottage I owned before the war in the Bavarian Alps. This cottage was meant for a very few people, and at the end of the war, there were about 13 people in this very small house.

From Werner Heisenberg

Werner Heisenberg

Notable Quotes

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Authors with Opposing Views

Alan Arkin

Alan Guth

Annie Besant

Claude Shannon

Donald Hall