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A scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.

Max Planck

This is one of man’s oldest riddles. How can the independence of human volition be harmonized with the fact that we are integral parts of a universe which is subject to the rigid order of nature’s laws?
MAX PLANCK

Harmony Human Independence Law Man Nature Old Order Subject
Science progresses not by convincing the adherents of old theories that they are wrong, but by allowing enough time to pass so that a new generation can arise unencumbered by the old errors.
MAX PLANCK

Errors Old Progress Science Theory
There is a real world independent of our senses; the laws of nature were not invented by man, but forced on him by the natural world. They are the expression of a natural world order.
MAX PLANCK

Independent Invention Law Nature Order Reality World
There is no matter as such—mind is the matrix of all matter.
MAX PLANCK

Mindset Science
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.
MAX PLANCK

Mystery Nature Ourselves Science Try
Those scientists who dislike entertaining contradictory thoughts are unlikely to enrich their science with new ideas.
MAX PLANCK

Entertainment Ideas Rich Science Thinking
The assumption of an absolute determinism is the essential foundation of every scientific enquiry.
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Assumption Determination Essence Foundation
Science advances funeral by funeral.
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Death Funeral One Liner Science
It is never possible to predict a physical occurrence with unlimited precision.
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Limitation Possible Prediction
It was not by accident that the greatest thinkers of all ages were deeply religious souls.
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Accident Age Deep Greatness Religious Soul Thinking
No burden is so heavy for a man to bear as a succession of happy days.
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Day Happiness heavy Lost Man
The man who cannot occasionally imagine events and conditions of existence that are contrary to the causal principle as he knows it will never enrich his science by the addition of a new idea.
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Condition Ideas Imagination Man New Occasion
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.
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Assumption Existence Future Law Physical Right
A scientist is happy, not in resting on his attainments but in the steady acquisition of fresh knowledge.
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Fresh Happiness Knowledge Science
We cannot rest and sit down lest we rust and decay. Health is maintained only through work. And as it is with all life so it is with science. We are always struggling from the relative to the absolute.
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Health Life Maintain Relative Rest Science Struggle
I had always looked upon the search for the absolute as the noblest and most worth while task of science.
MAX PLANCK

Noble Science Search Worth

A scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.

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A scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.

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Popular Authors

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