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No burden is so heavy for a man to bear as a succession of happy days.

Max Planck

The highest court is in the end one’s own conscience and conviction-that goes for you and for Einstein and every other physicist-and before any science there is first of all belief. For me, it is belief in a complete lawfulness in everything that happens.
MAX PLANCK

Conscience High Law Science
An experiment is a question which science poses to Nature and a measurement is the recording of Nature’s answer.
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Experiment Measurement Nature Question Record Science
Science advances one funeral at a time.
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Death Funeral One Liner Science Time
All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force.
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Existence Force Origin Science Virtue
Truth never triumphs-its opponents just die out.
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Death Rival Truth
An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: What does happen is that the opponents gradually die out.
MAX PLANCK

Creativity Death Important Innovation Rival Science Win
Scientific work will never stop, and it would be terrible if it did. If there were no more problems, you would put your hands in your pockets and your head on a pillow and would work no more. In science rest is stagnation, rest is death.
MAX PLANCK

Death Hands Science Stop Terrible Work
The quantum hypothesis will eventually find its exact expression in certain equations which will be a more exact formulation of the law of causality.
MAX PLANCK

Expression Law Science
An indispensable hypothesis, even though still far from being a guarantee of success, is however the pursuit of a specific aim, whose lighted beacon, even by initial failures, is not betrayed.
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Betrayal Failure Goal Light Pursuit Success
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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Death Generation Light Science Success Truth
It is never possible to predict a physical occurrence with unlimited precision.
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Limitation Possible Prediction
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.
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Errors Old Progress Science Theory
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
In all my research I have never come across matter. To me the term matter implies a bundle of energy which is given form by an intelligent spirit.
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Energy Intelligence Research Science Spirit
Experimenters are the shock troops of science.
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Experiment Science
There can never be any real opposition between religion and science; for the one is the complement of the other.
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Oneself Reality Religion Science
Ego is the immediate dictate of human consciousness.
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Consciousness Ego Human
The goal is nothing other than the coherence and completeness of the system not only in respect of all details, but also in respect of all physicists of all places, all times, all peoples, and all cultures.
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Culture Goal People Place Respect Time
Scientific discovery and scientific knowledge have been achieved only by those who have gone in pursuit of it without any practical purpose whatsoever in view.
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Discover Knowledge Practice Pursuit Science View
Experiment is the only means of knowledge at our disposal. Everything else is poetry, imagination.
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Experiment Imagination Knowledge Poetry
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?
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Harmony Human Independence Law Man Nature Old Order Subject
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.
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Mindset Science
Thus, the photons which constitute a ray of light behave like intelligent human beings: out of all possible curves they always select the one which will take them most quickly to their goal.
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Constitution Goal Human Intelligence Light Possible Quick
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.
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Happiness Himself Possession Rich Seek Truth
It is impossible to make a clear cut between science, religion, and art. The whole is never equal simply to the sum of its various parts.
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Art Equality Impossible Religion Science Simplicity
The assumption of an absolute determinism is the essential foundation of every scientific enquiry.
MAX PLANCK

Assumption Determination Essence Foundation

No burden is so heavy for a man to bear as a succession of happy days.

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No burden is so heavy for a man to bear as a succession of happy days.

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