Max Planck

“A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.”

“Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.”

“An experiment is a question which science poses to Nature, and a measurement is the recording of Nature's answer.”

“We have no right to assume that any physical laws exist, or if they have existed up to now, that they will continue to exist in a similar manner in the future.”

“Anybody who has been seriously engaged in scientific work of any kind realizes that over the entrance to the gates of the temple of science are written the words: Ye must have faith.”

“Truth never triumphs—its opponents just die out.”

“Scientific discovery and scientific knowledge have been achieved only by those who have gone in pursuit of it without any practical purpose whatsoever in view.”

“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

“I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.”

“Science advances one funeral at a time.”

“The pioneer scientist must have a vivid intuitive imagination, for new ideas are not generated by deduction, but by an artistically creative imagination.”

“Insight must precede application.”

“It is not the possession of truth, but the success which attends the seeking after it, that enriches the seeker and brings happiness to him.”

“All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force... We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix of all matter.”

“What we measure is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.”