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 HEISENBERGBohr’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 HEISENBERGThe end of the First World War had thrown Germany’s youth into great turmoil. The reins of power had fallen from the hands of a deeply disillusioned older generation, and the younger ones drew together in larger and smaller groups to blaze new paths or, at least, to discover a new star to steer by.
WERNER HEISENBERGCertainly, in the course of time, the splendid things will separate from the hateful.
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.
WERNER HEISENBERGI 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 HEISENBERGReports in Washington show that our reasoning was just like that of your physicists.
WERNER HEISENBERGWith 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 HEISENBERGThe 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 HEISENBERGI 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 HEISENBERGIf the lecture is good, then everything is too smooth. That’s the same in music: if the performance is too good, you really don’t enjoy it, because it just goes by, and you can never penetrate into the heart of it.
WERNER HEISENBERGSometimes a poor performance is better for enjoyment, because you can look at those things that were wrong and analyze them.
WERNER HEISENBERGIf we made atomic bombs, we would bring about a terrible change in the world. Who knows what would happen from this?
WERNER HEISENBERGWhoever dedicates his life to searching out particular connections of nature will spontaneously be confronted with the question how they harmoniously fit into the whole.
WERNER HEISENBERGIn Germany, an effort one thousandth the scale of the American was applied to the problem of producing atomic energy that would drive engines.
WERNER HEISENBERGThe 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 HEISENBERGWhat we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.
WERNER HEISENBERG