The solution of the difficulty is that the two mental pictures which experiment lead us to form – the one of the particles, the other of the waves – are both incomplete and have only the validity of analogies which are accurate only in limiting cases.
WERNER HEISENBERGIn America, it was decided to attempt the production of atomic bombs with an effort that would constitute a large part of the collective American war effort.
More Werner Heisenberg Quotes
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Reports in Washington show that our reasoning was just like that of your physicists.
WERNER HEISENBERG -
The uncertainty relation does not refer to the past; if the velocity of the electron is at first known and the position then exactly measured, the position for times previous to the measurement may be calculated.
WERNER HEISENBERG -
I would like to mention astrophysics; in this field, the strange properties of the pulsars and quasars, and perhaps also the gravitational waves, can be considered as a challenge.
WERNER HEISENBERG -
In 1924, I became a Dozent in Gottingen and worked out the quantum mechanics during a holiday stay on Heligoland.
WERNER HEISENBERG -
The single life is bearable to me only through my work in science, but for the long term, it would be very bad if I had to make do without a very young person next to me.
WERNER HEISENBERG -
There is a great difference between discoveries and inventions. With discoveries, one can always be skeptical, and many surprises can take place. In the case of inventions, surprises can really only occur for people who have not had anything to do with it.
WERNER HEISENBERG -
With all this information available, at least to privileged persons, I cannot understand why it is generally held in the United States that we completely missed the basic principle of the bomb until after Hiroshima.
WERNER HEISENBERG -
If we made atomic bombs, we would bring about a terrible change in the world. Who knows what would happen from this?
WERNER HEISENBERG -
I believe this uranium business will give the Anglo-Saxons such tremendous power that Europe will become a bloc under Anglo-Saxon domination. If that is the case, it will be a very good thing. I wonder whether Stalin will be able to stand up to the others as he has done in the past.
WERNER HEISENBERG -
Bohr’s influence on the physics and the physicists of our century was stronger than that of anyone else, even than that of Albert Einstein.
WERNER HEISENBERG -
The problems of language here are really serious. We wish to speak in some way about the structure of the atoms. But we cannot speak about atoms in ordinary language.
WERNER HEISENBERG -
Sometimes a poor performance is better for enjoyment, because you can look at those things that were wrong and analyze them.
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It is generally believed that our science is empirical and that we draw our concepts and our mathematical constructs from the empirical data.
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I think that if a United States of Europe were to be formed, it would be in our interests to fight for it, as all our old traditions would remain in such a united Europe, whereas if we were to start now as part of the Russian Empire, everything that had ever been in Germany would disappear.
WERNER HEISENBERG -
What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.
WERNER HEISENBERG






