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What really matters for me is ... the more active role of the observer in quantum physics ... According to quantum physics the observer has indeed a new relation to the physical events around him in comparison with the classical observer, who is merely a spectator.

Wolfgang Pauli

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Wolfgang Pauli
Age: 58 †
Born: 1900
Born: April 25
Died: 1958
Died: December 15
Chemist
Physicist
Theoretical Physicist
University Teacher
Vienna
Austria
Wolfgang Ernst Pauli
Physical
Observation
Role
Physics
Spectator
Events
According
Observer
Roles
Active
Spectators
Science
Relation
Observers
Around
Indeed
Quantum
Matter
Matters
Classical
Really
Merely
Comparison

More quotes by Wolfgang Pauli

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The layman always means, when he says reality that he is speaking of something self-evidently known whereas to me it seems the most important and exceedingly difficult task of our time is to work on the construction of a new idea of reality.
Wolfgang Pauli
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You know, what Einstein has just said isn't so stupid.
Wolfgang Pauli
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Aristotle was by far a less able thinker than Plato ... he was completely overwhelmed by Plato.
Wolfgang Pauli
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The fact of the existence of two theories [causal and acausal] that contradict each other in Jung ... corresponds psychologically to the vascillation between 3 and 4.
Wolfgang Pauli
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The fact that the author thinks slowly is not serious, but the fact that he publishes faster than he thinks is inexcusable.
Wolfgang Pauli
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How can one avoid despondency if one thinks of the anomalous Zeeman effect?
Wolfgang Pauli
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Well, our friend Dirac, too, has a religion, and its guiding principle is God does not exist and Dirac is His prophet.
Wolfgang Pauli
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Later, however, I came to recognize the objective nature of these dreams or fantasies ... Thus it was that I gradually came to acknowledge that such fantasies or dreams are neither meaningless nor purely arbitrary but rather convey a sort of second meaning of the terms applied.
Wolfgang Pauli
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If I understand Dirac correctly, his meaning is this: there is no God, and Dirac is his Prophet.
Wolfgang Pauli
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This is to show the world that I can paint like Titian. [A big drawing of a rectangle] Only technical details are missing.
Wolfgang Pauli
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One shouldn't work on semiconductors, that is a filthy mess who knows whether any semiconductors exist.
Wolfgang Pauli
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That theory is worthless. It isn't even wrong!
Wolfgang Pauli
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This isn't right. This isn't even wrong.
Wolfgang Pauli
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I confess, that very different from you, I do find sometimes scientific inspiration in mysticism ... but this is counterbalanced by an immediate sense for mathematics.
Wolfgang Pauli
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There can never be two or more equivalent electrons in an atom, for which in a strong field the values of all the quantum numbers n, k1, k2 and m are the same. If an electron is present, for which these quantum numbers (in an external field) have definite values, then this state is 'occupied.'
Wolfgang Pauli
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For quite a while I have set for myself the rule if a theoretician says 'universal' it just means pure nonsense.
Wolfgang Pauli
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If speculative ideas can not be tested, they're not science they don't even rise to the level of being wrong.
Wolfgang Pauli
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A colleague who met me strolling rather aimlessly in the beautiful streets of Copenhagen said to me in a friendly manner, You look very unhappy whereupon I answered fiercely, How can one look happy when he is thinking about the anomalous Zeeman effect?.
Wolfgang Pauli
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I have done a terrible thing, I have postulated a particle that cannot be detected.
Wolfgang Pauli
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It is not only not right, it is not even wrong.
Wolfgang Pauli