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Thus, the photons which constitute a ray of light behave like intelligent human beings: out of all possible curves they always select the one which will take them most quickly to their goal.

Max Planck

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Max Planck
Age: 89 †
Born: 1858
Born: April 23
Died: 1947
Died: December 4
Physicist
Theoretical Physicist
University Teacher
Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck
Planck
M.
Human
Quickly
Humans
Thus
Take
Intelligent
Photons
Always
Beings
Constitute
Like
Possible
Curves
Goal
Select
Action
Rays
Light
Behave

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Both religion and natural science require a belief in God for their activities, to the former He is the starting point, and to the latter the goal of every thought process. To the former He is the foundation, to the latter, the crown of the edifice of every generalized world view.
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All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force.
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The entire world we apprehend through our senses is no more than a tiny fragment in the vastness of Nature.
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This is one of man's oldest riddles. How can the independence of human volition be harmonized with the fact that we are integral parts of a universe which is subject to the rigid order of nature's laws?
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Nature prefers the more probable states to the less probable because in nature processes take place in the direction of greater probability. Heat goes from a body at higher temperature to a body at lower temperature because the state of equal temperature distribution is more probable than a state of unequal temperature distribution.
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The spectral density of black body radiation ... represents something absolute, and since the search for the absolutes has always appeared to me to be the highest form of research, I applied myself vigorously to its solution.
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What seems today inconceivable will appear one day, from a higher stand point, quite simple and harmonious.
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The Theory of Relativity confers an absolute meaning on a magnitude which in classical theory has only a relative significance: the velocity of light. The velocity of light is to the Theory of Relativity as the elementary quantum of action is to the Quantum Theory: it is its absolute core.
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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.
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Those [scientists] who dislike entertaining contradictory thoughts are unlikely to enrich their science with new ideas.
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The goal is nothing other than the coherence and completeness of the system not only in respect of all details, but also in respect of all physicists of all places, all times, all peoples, and all cultures.
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The scientist needs an artistically creative imagination.
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Science does not mean an idle resting upon a body of certain knowledge it means unresting endeavor and continually progressing development toward an end which the poetic intuition may apprehend, but which the intellect can never fully grasp.
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Scientific work will never stop, and it would be terrible if it did. If there were no more problems, you would put your hands in your pockets and your head on a pillow and would work no more. In science rest is stagnation, rest is death.
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Insight must precede application.
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The pioneer scientist must have a vivid intuitive imagination, for new ideas are not generated by deduction, but by artistically creative imagination.
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An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: What does happen is that the opponents gradually die out.
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I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as a derivative of consciousness.
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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.
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