Niels Bohr Quotes

It is better not to express what one means than to express what one does not mean.

Ambiguity is very interesting in writing; it's not very interesting in science.

Accuracy of language is one of the bulwarks of truth.

Don't write so that you can be understood, write so that you can't be misunderstood.

By honest I don't mean that you only tell what's true. But you make clear the entire situation. You make clear all the information that is required for somebody else who is intelligent to make up their mind.

My job is to be accurate and clear.

The more clearly you write, the more easily and surely you will be understood.

Unless in communicating with it one says exactly what one means, trouble is bound to result.

Man must learn to simplify, but not to the point of falsification.

Truth and clarity are complementary.

One of the nice things about math and science is it’s obvious, you get the answer or you don’t get the answer.

That's all we have, finally, the words, and they had better be the right ones.

Slender certainty is better than portentous falsehood.

Transparency is the new objectivity.

My natural tendency is to complicate everything--and then to spray words and ideas onto everything afterwards. I've had to develop the habit of keeping things simple.

Simplicity is simple. Perhaps this sounds redundant. But it's true, and it's important.

We must think things not words, or at least we must constantly translate our words into the facts for which they stand, if we are to keep to the real and the true.

The more effort we make to appreciate and perceive reality, the larger and more accurate our maps will be. But many do not want to make this effort.

It is important that you say what you mean to say. Time is too short. You must speak the words that matter.

Know what you're talking about.

Is it even always an advantage to replace an indistinct picture by a sharp one? Isn't the indistinct one often what we need?

In all pointed sentences, some degree of accuracy must be sacrificed to conciseness.

Falsehood is so easy, truth so difficult. Even with no motive to be false, it is very hard to say the exact truth.

It is no great advantage to possess a quick wit, if it is not correct; the perfection is not speed but uniformity.