Anybody who has been seriously engaged in scientific work of any kind realizes that over the entrance to the gates of the temple of science are written the words: 'Ye must have faith.'
Max PlanckRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Science offers tools to understand nature, but some mysteries remain unsolvable because we are part of that mystery.
This quote by Max Planck reflects on the limitations of scientific inquiry. While science can provide insights and explanations for many phenomena in nature, it acknowledges that we, as conscious beings, are inherently intertwined with the mysteries of existence. Ultimately, our quest for understanding is influenced by the very essence of who we are, which complicates our ability to fully resolve the enigmas of the universe.
Themes
ScienceMysteryNatureUnderstandingConsciousness
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on the limits of scientific inquiry, I quoted Planck to illustrate our relationship with nature.
More from Max Planck
All quotes →No burden is so heavy for a man to bear as a succession of happy days.
Max PlanckRead
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.
Max PlanckRead
We have no right to assume that any physical laws exist, or if they have existed up until now, that they will continue to exist in a similar manner in the future.
Max PlanckRead
Experiment is the only means of knowledge at our disposal. Everything else is poetry, imagination.
Max PlanckRead
There is no matter as such—mind is the matrix of all matter.
Max PlanckRead
Similar quotes
Basic research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing.
Wernher Von BraunRead
My work shows how important it is that independent researchers should have access to data so that government statistics can be checked and so that the democratic debate within India can be informed by the different interpretations of different scholars.
Angus DeatonRead
We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file-sharing networks.
Aaron SwartzRead
We have to have a combination of general relativity that describes the warping of space and time, and quantum physics, which describes the uncertainties in that warping and how they change.
Kip ThorneRead
A fundamental principle of information theory is that you can’t guarantee outcomes… in order for an experiment to yield knowledge, it has to be able to fail. If you have guaranteed experiments, you have zero knowledge
George GilderRead
A cardinal principle that we must not stray from - no exceptions - is that your genetic information is your business in terms of who sees it. Nobody should be gaining access to that information without your explicit permission, and nobody should be requiring you to take a genetic test unless you decide that that's what you want to do.
Francis CollinsRead