41 Max Planck Quotes From The Nobel Prize Winner And Father Of Quantum Physics

Max Karl Planck was a German theoretical physicist who discovered the quantum of action, thus giving birth to a field of study known as the quantum theory.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for this monumental contribution in the field. The discovery of energy quanta also earned him the title  of 'The Father of Quantum Physics.'

In this article, we take a look at some of the best quotes from Max Planck. If you wish to read more quotes around the topic of Physics, then take a look at these Physics quotes and Richard P Feynman quotes.
 

Here are some famous Max Planck Quotes.

1. "What seems today inconceivable will appear one day, from a higher stand point, quite simple and harmonious."

- Max Planck.

2. "Those [scientists] who dislike entertaining contradictory thoughts are unlikely to enrich their science with new ideas."

- Max Planck.

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

- Max Planck.

4. "Anybody who has been seriously engaged in scientific work of any kind realizes that over the entrance to the gates of the temple of science are written the words: 'Ye must have faith.'"

- Max Planck.

5. "The goal is nothing other than the coherence and completeness of the system."

- Max Planck.

6. "Religion and natural science are fighting a joint battle in an incessant, never relaxing crusade against skepticism and against dogmatism, against unbelief and superstition."

- Max Planck.

7. "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.

8. "Health is maintained only through work."

- Max Planck.

9. "The man who cannot occasionally imagine events and conditions of existence that are contrary to the causal principle as he knows it will never enrich his science by the addition of a new idea."

- Max Planck.

10. "We cannot rest and sit down lest we rust and decay."

- Max Planck.

11. "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?"

- Max Planck.

12. "[I do not believe] in a personal God, let alone a Christian God."

- Max Planck.

13. "Experiment is the only means of knowledge at our disposal. Everything else is poetry, imagination."

- Max Planck.

14. "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."

- Max Planck.

15. "When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."

- Max Planck.

16. "Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve."

- Max Planck.

Here are the best Max Planck quotes about science.

17. "I had always looked upon the search for the absolute as the noblest and most worthwhile task of science."

- Max Planck.

18. "It is never possible to predict a physical occurrence with unlimited precision."

- Max Planck.

19. "The first and most important quality of all scientific ways of thinking must be the clear distinction between the outer object of observation and the subjective nature of the observer."

- Max Planck.

20. "Again and again the imaginary plan on which one attempts to build up that order breaks down and then we must try another."

- Max Planck.

21. "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."

- Max Planck.

22. "Insight must precede application."

- Max Planck.

23. "And as it is with all life so it is with science. We are always struggling from the relative to the absolute."

- Max Planck.

24. "Science… means unresting endeavor and continually progressing development toward an aim which the poetic intuition may apprehend, but the intellect can never fully grasp."

- Max Planck.

25. "We have no right to assume that any physical laws exist, or if they have existed up to now, that they will continue to exist in a similar manner in the future."

- Max Planck.

26. "Science enhances the moral value of life, because it furthers a love of truth and reverence."

- Max Planck.

27. "Experimenters are the shock troops of science."

- Max Planck.

28. "A scientist is happy, not in resting on his attainments but in the steady acquisition of fresh knowledge."

- Max Planck.

29. "The assumption of an absolute determinism is the essential foundation of every scientific enquiry."

- Max Planck.

30. "An experiment is a question which science poses to Nature and a measurement is the recording of Nature's answer."

- Max Planck.

31. "We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter."

- Max Planck.

32. "All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together."

- Max Planck.

33. "Science advances one funeral at a time."

- Max Planck.

34. "A new 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."

- Max Planck.

Here are some quotes about consciousness from the German theoretical physicist.

35. "Ego is the immediate dictate of human consciousness."

- Max Planck.

36. "Whence come I and whither go I? That is the great unfathomable question, the same for every one of us. Science has no answer to it."

- Max Planck.

37. "Before any science there is first of all belief."

- Max Planck.

38. "The highest court is in the end one’s own conscience and conviction—that goes for you and for Einstein and every other physicist."

- Max Planck.

39. "Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness."

- Max Planck.

40. "I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness."

- Max Planck.

41. "I regard consciousness as fundamental."

- Max Planck.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Max Planck quotes then why not take a look at Charles Darwin quotes, or Alan Turing quotes.