The quotations of

Niels Bohr

Danish physicist

1885–1962

9 quotes, most often on Science and Ideas.

Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.
- Time
Anyone who says that they can contemplate quantum mechanics without becoming dizzy has not understood the concept in the least.
- Science
Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think.
- Talking
- Thinking
Your theory is crazy, but it’s not crazy enough to be true.
Said to Wolfgang Pauli after his presentation of Heisenberg’s and Pauli’s nonlinear field theory of elementary particles, at Columbia University (1958), as reported by F. J. Dyson in his paper “Innovation in Physics” (Scientific American, 199, No. 3
- Ideas
Of course I don’t believe in it. But I understand that it brings you luck whether you believe in it or not.
- Luck
We must be clear that when it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. The poet, too, is not nearly so concerned with describing facts as with creating images and establishing mental connections.
In his first meeting with Werner Heisenberg in early summer 1920, in response to questions on the nature of language, as reported in Discussions about Language (1933); quoted in Defense Implications of International Indeterminacy (1972) by Robert J. …
- Poetry
- Science
Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it.
In a 1952 conversation with Heisenberg and Pauli in Copenhagen; quoted in Heisenberg, Werner, Physics and Beyond. (New York: Harper & Row, 1971) p. 206.
- Science
Physics is to be regarded not so much as the study of something a priori given, but rather as the development of methods of ordering and surveying human experience.
“The Unity of Human Knowledge” (October 1960)
- Philosophy
- Science
We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question that divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct.
Said to Wolfgang Pauli at Columbia University (1958), as reported by Freeman Dyson, ‘Innovation in Physics’, Scientific American (September 1958)
- Ideas
- Science

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