Top 100 Quotes About Quantum Mechanics
#1. There was quantum mechanics, string theory, and then there was the most mind-bending frontier of the natural world, women.
Marisha Pessl
#2. Quantum mechanics broke the mold of the previous framework, classical mechanics, by establishing that the predictions of science are necessarily probabilistic.
Brian Greene
#3. Quantum field theory was originally developed for the treatment of electrodynamics, immediately after the completion of quantum mechanics and the discovery of the Dirac equation.
David Gross
#4. Einstein comes along and says, space and time can warp and curve, that's what gravity is. Now string theory comes along and says, yes, gravity, quantum mechanics, electromagnetism - all together in one package, but only if the universe has more dimensions than the ones that we see.
Brian Greene
#5. I'm beginning to think that love for me is a bit like Quantum Mechanics, something I know to exist, but have no idea how it works.
R.E. Wentz
#6. What you can show using physics, forces this universe to continue to exist. As long as you're using general relativity and quantum mechanics you are forced to conclude that God exists.
Frank Tipler
#7. Can quantum mechanics represent the fact that an electron finds itself approximately in a given place and that it moves approximately with a given velocity, and can we make these approximations so close that they do not cause experimental difficulties?
Werner Heisenberg
#8. There's a lot of things I nerd out over. Quantum Mechanics. I also love Dungeons and Dragons. I want to be an astronaut.
Analeigh Tipton
#9. [The Many-worlds interpretation is the] only completely coherent approach to explaining both the contents of quantum mechanics and the appearance of the world.
Hugh Everett III
#10. A university student attending lectures on general relativity i the morning and others on quantum mechanics in the afternoon might be forgiven for thinking that his professors are fools, or have neglected to communicate with each other for at least a century.
Carlo Rovelli
#12. Quantum mechanics provides us with an approximate, plausible, conjectural explanation of what actually is, or was, or may be taking place inside a cyclotron during a dark night in February.
Edward Abbey
#13. Quantum field theory, which was born just fifty years ago from the marriage of quantum mechanics with relativity, is a beautiful but not very robust child.
Steven Weinberg
#14. the earliest battles flared between himself and fellow physicist Leonard Susskind over whether quantum mechanics implied that information could leak out of black holes.
David Kaiser
#15. The role of gender in society is the most complicated thing I've ever spent a lot of time learning about, and I've spent a lot of time learning about quantum mechanics.
Randall Munroe
#16. I finished up my graduate degree in quantum mechanics, but underwent a bit of a personal crisis, recognizing that I didn't want to do that for the rest of my life. It was too abstract, too far removed from human concerns.
Francis Collins
#17. In the 'Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics,' the trajectory of your life is no longer just one straight path to an eventuality, but is instead one path of many, on an ever-branching tree of possibilities.
Kevin Michel
#18. Everything that can happen, does. That's quantum mechanics. But this does not mean everything happens. The rest of physics is about describing what can happen and what can't.
Antony Garrett Lisi
#19. It was about three o'clock at night when the final result of the calculation [which gave birth to quantum mechanics] lay before me ... At first I was deeply shaken ... I was so excited that I could not think of sleep. So I left the house ... and awaited the sunrise on top of a rock.
Werner Heisenberg
#20. A gifted experimentalist, and theoretician, in the best Newtonian tradition ... His contributions to quantum measurements, and elucidative teachings on quantum mechanics, have not yet received the attention they deserve.
Willis Lamb
#21. Nature is one. It is not divided into physics, chemistry, quantum mechanics.
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
#22. Werner Heisenberg put it, "what we observe is not nature in itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning." Heisenberg, a German physicist, made this observation regarding quantum mechanics, but it holds equally true for explorations of the animal
Frans De Waal
#23. The universe, according to quantum mechanics, participates in a game of chance.
Brian Greene
#24. Quantum Mechanics is different. Its weirdness is evident without comparison. It is harder to train your mind to have quantum mechanical tuition, because quantum mechanics shatters our own personal, individual conception of reality
Brian Greene
#25. Surprisingly now, over a half a century later, time symmetric approaches to electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, gravity, and cosmology might be consonant with the kind of eschatology that a theist such as Pannenberg supports.
Robert John Russell
#26. The development of quantum mechanics early in the twentieth century obliged physicists to change radically the concepts they used to describe the world.
Alain Aspect
#27. [Recent evidence regarding quantum mechanics is] sufficient to rule out all theological options but one - the Bible's.
Hugh Ross
#29. When you think about the complexity of our natural world - plants using quantum mechanics for photosynthesis, for example - a smartphone begins to look like a pretty dumb object.
Jeff VanderMeer
#30. [T]he atoms or elementary particles themselves are not real; they form a world of potentialities or possibilities rather than one of things or facts.
Werner Heisenberg
#31. If everything is made up of little particles and all the little particles follow quantum mechanics, then shouldn't everything just follow quantum mechanics?
Aaron D. O'Connell
#32. Classical mechanics gave us a deterministic view of the world. Quantum mechanics, conversely, gives us a probabilistic view instead. According to Newton, if you know the cause af an event, you can predict the outcome. According to M.Born, you can only predict how likely that outcome will be.
Leonid V. Azaroff
#33. Feynman once said, 'Science is imagination in a straitjacket.' It is ironic that in the case of quantum mechanics, the people without the straitjackets are generally the nuts.
Lawrence M. Krauss
#34. The doctrine that the world is made up of objects whose existence is independent of human consciousness turns out to be in conflict with quantum mechanics and with facts established by experiment.
Bernard D'Espagnat
#35. True story of quantum mechanics, a truth far stranger than any fiction.
John Gribbin
#36. A theory of reality must not only explain reality, but also knowledge about that reality because knowing reality is part of reality.
Ashish Dalela
#37. I think we can safely assume that no one understands quantum mechanics.
Richard P. Feynman
#38. Quantum mechanics, with its leap into statistics, has been a mere palliative for our ignorance
Rene Thom
#39. Since the founding of quantum mechanics in the 1920s, theoretical physics had nurtured an extremely radical tradition.
David Gross
#40. Common sense has no place in Quantum Mechanics.
Michio Kaku
#41. At the heart of quantum mechanics is a rule that sometimes governs politicians or CEOs - as long as no one is watching, anything goes.
Lawrence M. Krauss
#42. I count Maxwell and Einstein, Eddington and Dirac, among "real" mathematicians. The great modern achievements of applied mathematics have been in relativity and quantum mechanics, and these subjects are at present at any rate, almost as "useless" as the theory of numbers.
G.H. Hardy
#44. If you have nothing in quantum mechanics, you will always have something.
Lawrence M. Krauss
#45. According to quantum mechanics there is no such thing as objectivity. We cannot eliminate ourselves from the picture. We are part of nature, and when we study nature there is no way around the fact that nature is studying itself.
Gary Zukav
#46. Einstein was searching for String Theory. It not only reconciles General Relativity to Quantum Mechanics, but it reconciles Science and the Bible as well.
Roy H. Williams
#47. In the beginning there were only probabilities. The universe could only come into existence if someone observed it. It does not matter that the observers turned up several billion years later. The universe exists because we are aware of it.
Martin J. Rees
#48. For the record: Quantum mechanics does not deny the existence of objective reality. Nor does it imply that mere thoughts can change external events. Effects still require causes, so if you want to change the universe, you need to act on it.
Lawrence M. Krauss
#49. Before the discovery of quantum mechanics, the framework of physics was this: If you tell me how things are now, I can then use the laws of physics to calculate, and hence predict, how things will be later.
Brian Greene
#50. Although quantum mechanics has been around for nearly 70 years, it is still not generally understood or appreciated, even by those that use it to do calculations.
Stephen Hawking
#51. I find the idea quite intolerable that an electron exposed to radiation should choose of its own free will not only its moment to jump off but its direction. In that case I would rather be a cobbler, or even an employee in a gaming house, than a physicist.
Albert Einstein
#52. While many questions about quantum mechanics are still not fully resolved, there is no point in introducing needless mystification where in fact no problem exists. Yet a great deal of recent writing about quantum mechanics has done just that.
Murray Gell-Mann
#53. The basic idea is to shove all fundamental difficulties onto the neutron and to do quantum mechanics in the nucleus.
Werner Heisenberg
#54. People don't learn science in movies. You don't go to the movies thinking, 'I hope I learn some quantum mechanics this afternoon.' But on the other hand, movies are instrumental and influential in getting young people interested in science.
Seth Shostak
#55. If quantum mechanics hasn't profoundly shocked you, you haven't understood it yet.
Niels Bohr
#56. We are a manifestation that we perpetuate through space-time. Death is the ceasing of the observation of it whether by direct or indirect influence.
Solange Nicole
#57. If the business of physics is ever finished, the world will be a much less interesting place in which to live . . .
John Gribbin
#58. He smiled proudly at the machine Ephraim was staring at. "That's our Coheron Drive. Isn't she beautiful? I helped build her."
Ephraim glanced at the coin in his hand. Zoe patted his shoulder comfortingly. "Don't worry. Size doesn't matter in quantum mechanics," she said. "It's how you use it.
E.C. Myers
#59. Entanglement is not one but rather the characteristic trait of quantum
mechanics.
Erwin Schrodinger
#60. While classical mechanics correctly predicts the behavior of large objects such as tennis balls, to predict the behavior of small objects such as electrons, we must use quantum mechanics.
Ivar Giaever
#61. No. I had successfully solved the difficulty of finding a description of the electron which was consistent with both relativity and quantum mechanics. Of course, when you solve one difficulty, other new difficulties arise. You then try to sove them. You can never solve all difficulties at once.
Paul Dirac
#62. There are a lot of mysteries about quantum mechanics, but they mostly arise in very detailed measurements in controlled settings.
Lisa Randall
#63. general relativity and quantum mechanics cannot both be right,
Brad S. Gregory
#64. People get a lot of confusion, because they keep trying to think of quantum mechanics as classical mechanics
Sidney Coleman
#65. The most important single thing about string theory is that it's a highly mathematical theory, and the mathematics holds together in a very tight and consistent way. It contains in its basic structure both quantum mechanics and the theory of gravity. That's big news.
Leonard Susskind
#66. There's a branch of math called the foundations of math. It's kind of like quantum mechanics. It's about how this very complex theory of math can be built up from very basic parts.
Tristan Perich
#67. The Theory of Relativity confers an absolute meaning on a magnitude which in classical theory has only a relative significance: the velocity of light. The velocity of light is to the Theory of Relativity as the elementary quantum of action is to the Quantum Theory: it is its absolute core.
Max Planck
#68. [Quantum mechanics] describes nature as absurd from the point of view of common sense. And yet it fully agrees with experiment. So I hope you can accept nature as She is - absurd.
Richard Feynman
#69. Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that this is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not bring us any closer to the secrets of the "Old One." I, at any rate, am convinced that He is not playing at dice.
Albert Einstein
#70. Quantum mechanics brought an unexpected fuzziness into physics because of quantum uncertainty, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.
Edward Witten
#71. Einstein said that if quantum mechanics were correct then the world would be crazy. Einstein was right - the world is crazy.
Daniel M. Greenberger
#72. I find enough mystery in mathematics to satisfy my spiritual needs. I think, for example, that pi is mysterious enough (don't get me started!) without having to worry about God. Or if pi isn't enough, how about fractals? or quantum mechanics?
Tom Lehrer
#73. According to string theory in quantum mechanics the core of energy and matter on a subatomic level is a vibrating, string-like filament that is identical in all energy and matter.
Russell Anthony Gibbs
#74. It is the definition of the word 'object' which destroys all religions.
Bill Gaede
#75. Certainly we do not need quantum mechanics for macroscopic objects, which are well described by classical physics - this is the reason why quantum mechanics seems so foreign to our everyday existence.
Alain Aspect
#76. General theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. They are the great intellectual achievements of the first half of this century.
Stephen Hawking
#77. Quantum mechanics has explained all of chemistry and most of physics.
Paul Dirac
#78. Quantum mechanics - the physics of our world - requires that you hold such pedestrian complaints in abeyance.
Brian Greene
#79. Just because quantum mechanics is weird does not mean that everything that is weird is quantum mechanics.
Victor J. Stenger
#80. The problem is that replacement of Quantum Mechanics by Quantum Field Theory is still very demanding.
Martin Fleischmann
#81. Quantum mechanics as it stands would be perfect if we didn't have the quantum-gravity issue and a few other very deep fundamental problems.
Gerard 't Hooft
#82. All the calculus, quantum mechanics and languages in the world are worthless pieces of information, if they are not brought to the service of the society.
Abhijit Naskar
#83. When you look at the external reality, you may assume you know everything, but when you close your eyes and try to look into the darkness of your internal reality, all the knowledge of the external life fails to create a way out of the darkness.
Roshan Sharma
#84. The mathematics of quantum mechanics very accurately describes how our universe works.
Antony Garrett Lisi
#85. The so-called mysteries of quantum mechanics are in its philosophical interpretation, not in its mathematics.
Victor J. Stenger
#86. Margrethe: And when all our eyes are closed, when even the ghosts have gone, what will be left of our beloved world? Our ruined and dishonoured and beloved world?
Michael Frayn
#87. Now, what that means is that there is fundamental indeterminacy from quantum mechanics, but besides that there are other sources of effective indeterminacy.
Murray Gell-Mann
#88. Which came first - the observer or the particle?
Vanna Bonta
#89. The math of quantum mechanics and the math of general relativity, when they confront one another, they are ferocious antagonists and the equations don't work.
Brian Greene
#90. When things get tough, there are two things that make life worth living: Mozart, and quantum mechanics
Victor Frederick Weisskopf
#91. Quantum Mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of. Quick: try to think of a single movie about the horrors of Stalinism. This is not a failure of imagination. This is moral meltdown.
Mona Charen
#92. Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity are both accepted as scientific fact even though they're mutually exclusive. Albert Einstein spent the second half of his life searching for a unifying truth that would reconcile the two.
Roy H. Williams
#93. Anybody who is not shocked by this subject has failed to understand it. [of quantum mechanics]
Niels Bohr
#94. If quantum mechanics is how reality structures itself, then the world is far weirder than we think. It is truly a wonderful time to write Science Fiction!
Stavros Halvatzis
#95. Based upon quantum mechanics, our physical reality should not be solid. Most likely our physical reality is an elaborate illusion within our own consciousness and the collective consciousness of the Universe/God.
Russell Anthony Gibbs
#96. Seriousness of mind was a prerequisite for understanding Newtonian physics. I am not convinced it is not a handicap in understanding quantum theory.
Connie Willis
#97. Quantum theory provides us with a striking illustration of the fact that we can fully understand a connection though we can only speak of it in images and parables.
Werner Heisenberg
#98. No phenomenon directly involving a frequency has yet been detected above approximately 10^12 cycles per second. We only deduce the higher frequencies from the energy of the particles, by a rule which assumes that the particle-wave idea of quantum mechanics is valid.
Richard Feynman
#99. For more details about the Curies especially, see Sheilla Jones's wonderful book The Quantum Ten, an account of the surprisingly contentious and fractious early days of quantum mechanics, circa 1925.
Sam Kean
#100. Quantum mechanics extends this relativity in a radical way: all variable aspects of an object exist only in relation to other objects. It is only in interactions that nature draws the world.
Carlo Rovelli
