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Our task is not to penetrate the essence of things, the meaning of which we do not know anyway, but rather to develop concepts which allow us to talk in a productive way about phenomena in nature

Niels Bohr

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Niels Bohr
Age: 77 †
Born: 1885
Born: October 7
Died: 1962
Died: November 18
Association Football Player
Chemist
Nuclear Physicist
Philosopher Of Science
Physicist
University Teacher
København
Niels Henrik David Bohr
Nicholas Baker
N. Bohr
Allow
Phenomena
Essence
Penetrate
Meaning
Productive
Talk
Task
Rather
Anyway
Nature
Develop
Way
Tasks
Things
Concepts

More quotes by Niels Bohr

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If we couldn't laugh at ourselves, that would be the end of everything.
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You must come to Copenhagen to work with us. We like people who can actually perform thought experiments!
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There is no hope for any speculation that does not look absurd at first glance.
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Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think.
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Anybody who is not shocked by this subject has failed to understand it. [of quantum mechanics]
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It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how nature is. Physics concerns what we say about nature.
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It is difficult to predict, especially the future.
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There are some things so serious you have to laugh at them.
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How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress.
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Predition is risky, especially of the future.
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It is very difficult to make an accurate prediction, especially about the future.
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Truth and clarity are complementary.
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Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself its own solution. It forces us to change our thinking in order to find it.
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No, no, you're not thinking you're just being logical.
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An independant reality in the ordinary physical sense can neither be ascribed to the phenomenon nor to the agencies of observation.
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In physics we deal with states of affairs much simpler than those of psychology and yet we again and again learn that our task is not to investigate the essence of things-we do not at all know what this would mean&mashbut to develop those concepts that allow us to speak with each other about the events of nature in a fruitful manner.
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The measurement we get when we measure something is not a property of the thing measured.
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There are trivial truths and the great truths. The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false. The opposite of a great truth is also true.
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No paradox, no progress.
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Your theory is crazy, but it's not crazy enough to be true.
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