If I understand Dirac correctly, his meaning is this: there is no God, and Dirac is his Prophet. Wolfgang Pauli More Quotes by Wolfgang Pauli More Quotes From Wolfgang Pauli I have done a terrible thing, I have postulated a particle that cannot be detected. Wolfgang Pauli particlesterribledone The best that most of us can hope to achieve in physics is simply to misunderstand at a deeper level. Wolfgang Pauli achievephysicslevels That's not right. That's not even wrong. Wolfgang Pauli science God made the bulk; the surface was invented by the devil. Wolfgang Pauli surfacedevilmade Everything comes to him who knows how to wait. Wolfgang Pauli know-howwaitingknows If speculative ideas can not be tested, they're not science; they don't even rise to the level of being wrong. Wolfgang Pauli can-notlevelsideas What really matters for me is ... the more active role of the observer in quantum physics ... According to quantum physics the observer has indeed a new relation to the physical events around him in comparison with the classical observer, who is merely a spectator. Wolfgang Pauli eventsrolesscience The fact that the author thinks slowly is not serious, but the fact that he publishes faster than he thinks is inexcusable. Wolfgang Pauli sciencefactsthinking To us ... the only acceptable point of view appears to be the one that recognizes both sides of reality-the quantitative and the qualitative, the physical and the psychical-as compatible with each other, and can embrace them simultaneously ... It would be most satisfactory of all if physis and psyche (i.e., matter and mind) could be seen as complementary aspects of the same reality. Wolfgang Pauli viewssciencereality Physics is very muddled again at the moment; it is much too hard for me anyway, and I wish I were a movie comedian or something like that and had never heard anything about physics! Wolfgang Pauli comedianwishscience A colleague who met me strolling rather aimlessly in the beautiful streets of Copenhagen said to me in a friendly manner, "You look very unhappy"; whereupon I answered fiercely, "How can one look happy when he is thinking about the anomalous Zeeman effect?". Wolfgang Pauli unhappybeautifulthinking How can one avoid despondency if one thinks of the anomalous Zeeman effect? Wolfgang Pauli despondencyeffectsthinking Well, our friend Dirac, too, has a religion, and its guiding principle is "God does not exist and Dirac is His prophet." Wolfgang Pauli there-is-no-godguiding-principlesprophet The layman always means, when he says "reality" that he is speaking of something self-evidently known; whereas to me it seems the most important and exceedingly difficult task of our time is to work on the construction of a new idea of reality. Wolfgang Pauli meanrealityideas You know, what Einstein has just said isn't so stupid. Wolfgang Pauli stupidknowssaid When one analyzes the pre-conscious step to concepts, one always finds ideas which consist of 'symbolic images.' The first step to thinking is a painted vision of these inner pictures whose origin cannot be reduced only and firstly to the sensual perception but which are produced by an 'instinct to imagining' and which are re-produced by different individuals independently, i.e. collectively... But the archaic image is also the necessary predisposition and the source of a scientific attitude. To a total recognition belong also those images out of which have grown the rational concepts. Wolfgang Pauli attitudeideasthinking Although I have no objection to accepting the existence of relatively constant psychic contents that survive personal ego, it must always be born in mind that we have no way of knowing what these contents are actually like "as such." All we can observe is their effect on other living people, whose spiritual level and whose personal unconscious crucially influence the way these contents actually manifest themselves. Wolfgang Pauli psychicsknowingspiritual I refuse to believe that God is a weak left-hander. Wolfgang Pauli left-handersweakbelieve I confess, that very different from you, I do find sometimes scientific inspiration in mysticism ... but this is counterbalanced by an immediate sense for mathematics. Wolfgang Pauli differentinspirationsometimes For quite a while I have set for myself the rule if a theoretician says 'universal' it just means pure nonsense. Wolfgang Pauli nonsensesciencemean
