Werner Heisenberg - Quantum Quotes

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It seems sensible to discard all hope of observing hitherto unobservable quantities, such as the position and period of the electron...Instead it seems more reasonable to try to establish a theoretical quantum mechanics, analogous to classical mechanics, but in which only relations between observable quantities occur.

Werner Heisenberg
The basic idea is to shove all fundamental difficulties onto the neutron and to do quantum mechanics in the nucleus.

Werner Heisenberg
Quantum theory provides us with a striking illustration of the fact that we can fully understand a connection though we can only speak of it in images and parables.

Werner Heisenberg
However the development proceeds in detail, the path so far traced by the quantum theory indicates that an understanding of those still unclarified features of atomic physics can only be acquired by foregoing visualization and objectification to an extent greater than that customary hitherto. We have probably no reason to regret this, because the thought of the great epistemological difficulties with which the visual atom concept of earlier physics had to contend gives us the hope that the abstracter atomic physics developing at present will one day fit more harmoniously into the great edifice of Science.

Werner Heisenberg
Can quantum mechanics represent the fact that an electron finds itself approximately in a given place and that it moves approximately with a given velocity, and can we make these approximations so close that they do not cause experimental difficulties?

Werner Heisenberg
I am convinced that the spectrum of all chemical elements can be obtained... from quantum theory in a unique manner without physics by boneheaded calculation.

Werner Heisenberg
Quantum theory reminds us of the old wisdom that when searching for harmony in life we must forget that in the drama of existence we are ourselves both players and spectators.

Werner Heisenberg
In the light of quantum theory these elementary particles are no longer real in the same sense as objects of daily life, trees or stones, but appear as abstractions derived from the real material of observation in the true sense.

Werner Heisenberg
The basic idea is: shove all fundamental difficulties on to the neutron and practice quantum mechanics inside the nucleus.

Werner Heisenberg
The problem of quantum theory centers on the fact that the particle picture and the wave picture are merely two different aspects of one and the same physical reality.

Werner Heisenberg
If anything like mechanics were true then one would never understand the existence of atoms. Evidently there exists another [type of mechanics — ] "quantum mechanics."

Werner Heisenberg