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

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

It is a great pity that human beings cannot find all of their satisfaction in scientific contemplativeness.

There are two sorts of truth: trivialities, where opposites are clearly absurd, and profound truths, recognised by the fact that the opposite is also a profound truth.

If an idea does not appear bizarre, there is no hope for it.

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

Address to Albert Einstein: You are not thinking. You are merely being logical.

When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry.

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

One must always do what one really cannot.

There is no hope for any speculation that does not look absurd at first glance.

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

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

If we couldn’t laugh at ourselves, that would be the end of everything.

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

Physics is the belief that a simple and consistent description of nature is possible.

Some subjects are so serious that one can only joke about them.

Exploratory research is really like working in a fog. You don’t know where you’re going. You’re just groping. Then people learn about it afterwards and think how straightforward it was.

Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he can learn more than what is in books, for they speak with the voice of God.

For out of old fields, as men saith, Cometh all this new corn from year to year; And out of old books, in good faith, Cometh all this new science that men learn.

Patience is a conquering virtue. The learned say that, if it not desert you, It vanquishes what force can never reach; Why answer back at every angry speech? No, learn forbearance or, I’ll tell you what, You will be taught it, whether you will or not.

You must learn to forgive a man when he’s in love. He’s always a nuisance.

You know, with Hitler, the more I learn about that guy, the more I don’t care for him.

However exquisitely human nature may have been described by writers, the true practical system can be learned only in the world.

And gladly would he learn and gladly teach.