If you have a correct statement, then the opposite of a correct statement is of course an incorrect statement, a wrong statement. But when you have a deep truth, then the opposite of a deep truth may again be a deep truth.
NIELS BOHR
NIELS BOHR
Niels Bohr on philosophy
Niels Bohr70 quotes“If you have a correct statement, then the opposite of a correct statement is of course an incorrect statement, a wrong statement. But when you have a deep truth, then the opposite of a deep truth may again be a deep truth.”
Filed under
More from Niels Bohr
A physicist is just an atom’s way of looking at itself.
Niels BohrNiels Bohr Your theory is crazy, but it’s not crazy enough to be true.
Niels BohrNiels Bohr A deep truth is a truth so deep that not only is it true but it’s exact opposite is also true.
Niels BohrNiels Bohr Accuracy and clarity of statement are mutually exclusive.
Niels BohrNiels Bohr Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think.
Niels BohrNiels Bohr Our task is not to penetrate the essence of things, the meaning of which we do not know anyway, but rather to develop concepts which allow us to talk in a productive way about phenomena in nature
Niels BohrNiels Bohr The opposite of every great idea is another great idea.
Niels BohrNiels Bohr Einstein, stop telling God what to do!
Niels BohrNiels Bohr Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.
Niels BohrNiels Bohr Anyone who can contemplate quantum mechanics without getting dizzy hasn’t understood it.
Niels BohrNiels Bohr Nothing exists until it is measured.
Niels BohrNiels Bohr It is not enough to be wrong, one must also be polite.
Niels BohrNiels Bohr You must come to Copenhagen to work with us. We like people who can actually perform thought experiments!
Niels BohrNiels Bohr No paradox, no progress.
Niels BohrNiels 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 BohrNiels Bohr Opposites are not contradictory but complementary.
Niels BohrNiels Bohr
Original quotes
From our community writers
They bleed not in the mouth but through their ink – indelible and dark.
Juana GarciaJuana Garcia I would rather shoot my arrows than keep them in my bow, I would rather risk it all than risk nothing at all.
ShamaShama I wish I knew then all of the things I know now that I am enough.
TMCTMC I feel like I’m on fire, fighting for a moment on respite – I’m not placing bets.
M.K. StandbyM.K. Standby I found him in all the chaos, and that was when my world started making sense again.
MoomerMoomer The judgement that people cast on you for how you do or do not appear is nothing more than just a projection of their own wounds.
Taj AroraTaj Arora Be grateful for what you have now, even if it’s not everything you wanted.
Sonia SabnisSonia Sabnis It seems strange how we look in the same mirror, yet what stares back, is so painfully different.
Chris AllchinChris Allchin
More on philosophy
From such crooked timber as humanity is made of, no straight thing was ever constructed.
Immanuel KantImmanuel Kant Nothing is everything that doesn’t happen at this very moment.
Martin HeideggerMartin Heidegger Freedom will bite back more fiercely when suspended than when she remains undisturbed.
Marcus Tullius CiceroMarcus Tullius Cicero It is dreadful to think that behind me my own past is no longer anything but shifting darkness.
Simone de BeauvoirSimone de Beauvoir The body is not a thing, it is a situation: it is our grasp on the world and our sketch of our project.
Simone de BeauvoirSimone de Beauvoir To say philosophy originates in wonder means philosophy is wondrous in its essence and becomes more wondrous the more it becomes what it really is.
Martin HeideggerMartin Heidegger It is certainly a bad sign of common sense to appeal to it as a witness.
Immanuel KantImmanuel Kant It is foolish to tear one’s hair in grief, as though sorrow would be made less by baldness.
Marcus Tullius CiceroMarcus Tullius Cicero