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Niels Bohr Quotes

An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field.

– Niels Bohr

Einstein, stop telling God what to do!

– Niels Bohr

If anybody says he can think about quantum physics without getting giddy, that only shows he has not understood the first thing about them.

– Niels Bohr

Technology has advanced more in the last thirty years than in the previous two thousand. The exponential increase in advancement will only continue. Anthropological Commentary The opposite of a trivial truth is false; the opposite of a great truth is also true.

– Niels Bohr

An expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes, which can be made, in a very narrow field.

– Niels Bohr

We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question which divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct. My own feeling is that it is not crazy enough.

– Niels Bohr

How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress.

– Niels Bohr

No, no, you’re not thinking; you’re just being logical.

– Niels Bohr

Every sentence I utter must be understood not as an affirmation, but as a question.

– Niels Bohr

Every description of natural processes must be based on ideas which have been introduced and defined by the classical theory.

– Niels Bohr

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.

– Niels Bohr

If quantum mechanics hasn’t profoundly shocked you, you haven’t understood it yet.

– Niels Bohr

While the finish given to our picture of the world by the theory of relativity has already been absorbed into the general scientific consciousness, this has scarcely occurred to the same extent with those aspects of the general problem of knowledge which have been elucidated by the quantum theory.

– Niels Bohr

Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real.

– Niels Bohr

The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness.

– Niels Bohr

The opposite of a fact is falsehood, but the opposite of one profound truth may very well be another profound truth.

– Niels Bohr

Humanity will… be confronted with dangers of unprecedented character unless, in due time, measures can be taken to forestall a disastrous competition in such formidable armaments and to establish an international control of the manufacture and use of the powerful materials.

– Niels Bohr

Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself its own solution. It forces us to change our thinking in order to find it.

– Niels Bohr

A physicist is just an atom’s way of looking at itself.

– Niels Bohr

Your theory is crazy, but it’s not crazy enough to be true.

– Niels Bohr

There are some things so serious you have to laugh at them.

– Niels Bohr

It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how Nature is. Physics concerns what we say about Nature.

– Niels Bohr

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.

– Niels Bohr

Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think.

– Niels Bohr

Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.

– Niels Bohr