Max Planck Quotes

It must be for truth's sake, and not for the sake of its usefulness to humanity, that the scientific man studies Nature.

The increase of scientific knowledge lies not only in the occasional milestones of science, but in the efforts of the very large body of men who with love and devotion observe and study nature.

I was always very interested in science, and I knew that for me, science was a better long-term career than tennis.

Scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge.

One can not impede scientific progress.

People always talk about the implication and applications of a process, but for me, the goal is purely about knowledge. Knowledge can become practical today, in 20 years, or in 500 years. Ask Newton. He didn't know there would be space research based on his accident with the apple.

It doesn't matter whether it is chemistry or immunology or neuroscience: I just do research on what I find interesting.

Understanding science and pushing the boundaries of science is what makes me immensely satisfied.

Frequently, I have been asked if an experiment I have planned is pure or applied science; to me it is more important to know if the experiment will yield new and probably enduring knowledge about nature. If it is likely to yield such knowledge, it is, in my opinion, good fundamental research; and this is more important than whether the motivation is purely aesthetic satisfaction on the part of the experimenter on the one hand or the improvement of the stability of a high-power transistor on the other.

Without science, there would be no such hope.

The scientist finds his reward in what Henri Poincare calls the joy of comprehension, and not in the possibility of application to which any discovery may lead.

The deep things in science are not found because they are useful; they are found because it was possible to find them..

It is a profound and necessary truth that the deep things in science are not found because they are useful: they are found because it was possible to find them.

I loved science. I still love it; I'm a nerd in that sense.

I want to get across that science is something that we all have ownership of and we can all take an interest in. We don't all have to understand complex theories, but we should have a working knowledge, like knowing your way round the engine of your car.

The type of science that I do is sometimes known as 'curiosity-driven research.' This means that my work will never result in a marketable product, a useful machine, a prescribable pill, a formidable weapon, or any direct gain.

Only by ignorance is science threatened.

Boy, when you come to study something, and you come to understand it - you know, even if it's just a little discovery that you make, and you come to understand it on your own, it feels it's like the greatest high. It's like you just have found some incredibly secretive thing about nature.

Oh, I assure you, science is anything but boring.

Science has promised us truth...It has never promised us either peace or happiness.

Science is vastly more stimulating to the imagination than the classics.

Knowing how contented, free, and joyful is life in the world of science, one fervently wishes that many would enter its portals.

Where my reason, imagination or interest were not engaged, I would not or I could not learn.

'Science in itself' is nothing, for it exists only in the human beings who are its bearers. 'Science for its own sake' usually means nothing more than science for the sake of the people who happen to be pursuing it.

For us there is no ignorabimus, and in my opinion none whatever in natural science. In opposition to the foolish ignorabimus our slogan shall be: "We must know - we will know!"