Max Born Quotes

41 Sourced Quotes

The belief that there is only one truth and that oneself is in possession of it, seems to me the deepest root of all that is evil in the world.

Max Born
If God has made the world a perfect mechanism, He has at least conceded so much to our imperfect intellect that in order to predict little parts of it, we need not solve innumerable differential equations, but can use dice with fair success.

Max Born
I am now convinced that theoretical physics is actually philosophy. It has revolutionized fundamental concepts, e. g., abut space and time (relativity), about causality (quantum theory), and about substance and matter (atomistics). It has taught us new methods of thinking (complimentarity), which are applicable far beyond physics.

Max Born
There are metaphysical problems, which cannot be disposed of by declaring them meaningless. For, as I have repeatedly said, they are "beyond physics" indeed and demand an act of faith. We have to accept this fact to be honest. There are two objectionable types of believers: those who believe the incredible and those who believe that "belief" must be discarded and replaced by "the scientific method."

Max Born
Intellect distinguishes between the possible and the impossible; reason distinguishes between the sensible and the senseless. Even the possible can be senseless.

Max Born
The problem of physics is how the actual phenomena, as observed with the help of our sense organs aided by instruments, can be reduced to simple notions which are suited for precise measurement and used of the formulation of quantitative laws.

Max Born
Living matter and clarity are opposites — they run away from each other.

Max Born
The simple and unscientific man's belief in reality is fundamentally the same as that of the scientist.

Max Born
To present a scientific subject in an attractive and stimulating manner is an artistic task, similar to that of a novelist or even a dramatic writer. The same holds for writing textbooks.

Max Born
Science has become an integral and most important part of our civilization, and scientific work means contributing to its development. Science in our technical age has social, economic, and political functions, and however remote one's own work is from technical application it is a link in the chain of actions and decisions which determine the fate of the human race.

Max Born
Do not despair. Remember there is no triangle, however obtuse, but the circumference of some circle passes through its wretched vertices.

Max Born
Physicists are very broad-minded in this respect; they will continue using obsolete expressions like ether, and no harm is done. For them a matter of terminology is not serious until a new quantitative law is involved.

Max Born
If Gessler had ordered William Tell to shoot a hydrogen atom off his son's head by means of a particle and had given him the best laboratory instruments in the world instead of a cross-bow, Tell's skill would have availed him nothing. Hit or miss would have been a matter of chance.

Max Born
The dance of atoms, electrons, and nuclei, which in all its fury is subject to God's eternal laws, has been entangled with another restless universe which may well be the Devil's: the human struggle for power and domination, which eventually becomes history.

Max Born
The continuity of our science has not been affected by all these turbulent happenings, as the older theories have always been included as limiting cases in the new ones.

Max Born
A philosophy in which the notions of chance and freedom are fundamental seems to me preferable to the almost inhuman determinism of the previous epoch — but that is no scientific argument.

Max Born
It is true that many scientists are not philosophically minded and have hitherto shown much skill and ingenuity but little wisdom.

Max Born
Faith, imagination and intuition are decisive factors in the progress of science as in any other human activity.

Max Born
The human mind is conservative, and the scientist makes no exception from this rule. He will accept a new theory only if it stands the trial of many experimental tests.

Max Born
The engineer, who has cunningly contrived to make the blind and deaf molecules in their mad, senseless rush drive an engine, may well feel proud of himself.

Max Born
I believe that ideas such as absolute certitude, absolute exactness, final truth, etc. are figments of the imagination which should not be admissible in any field of science... This loosening of thinking seems to me to be the greatest blessing which modern science has given to us. For the belief in a single truth and in being the possessor thereof is the root cause of all evil in the world.

Max Born
The satisfaction of the noble curiosity of the scholar is only one aspect of research. Science is also — and many say predominantly — a collective effort to obtain power over the forces of nature in the interest of human life.

Max Born
All attempts to adapt our ethical code to our situation in the technological age have failed.

Max Born
I believe there is no philosophical high-road in science, with epistemological signposts. No, we are in a jungle and find our way by trial and error, building our road behind us as we proceed. We do not find signposts at crossroads, but our own scouts erect them, to help the rest.

Max Born
But in practical affairs, particularly in politics, men are needed who combine human experience and interest in human relations with a knowledge of science and technology. Moreover, they must be men of action and not contemplation.

Max Born