Werner Heisenberg Quotes

I discovered philosophy in my youth when I read 'wildly,' and thus I was exposed to the world of ideas.

The order and connection of ideas is the same as the order and connection of things.

I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as a derivative of consciousness.

[Quantity is the fundamental feature of things,] the 'primarium accidens substantiae,' ...prior to the other categories.

Is the ground a philosophical concept? Has mind a relationship to the ground? Is it an idea to be investigated? Is the ground put together by thought?

Why is there anything at all rather than nothing whatsoever?

Being is the soul of every concept, of every judgment and of every reasoning.

It was Heraclitus' ideas that seized Nietzsche so totally that he became completely mad.

Naturalism and materialism mean essentially the same thing.

Infinite possibility in all things is a certainty. That pretty much covers theology and philosophy for me.

In Philosophy, the contemplations of man do either penetrate unto God, or are circumferred to Nature, or are reflected and reverted upon himself. Out of which several inquiries there do arise three knowledges, Divine Philosophy, Natural Philosophy, and Human Philosophy or Humanity. For all things are marked and stamped with this triple character of the power of God, the difference of Nature and the use of Man.

All parts of knowledge have their origin in metaphysics, and finally, perhaps, revolve into it.

All known existence points beyond itself.

In God alone, essence (what He is) and existence (that he is) coincide.

But then in what way are things called good? They do not seem to be like the things that only chance to have the same name. Are goods one then by being derived from one good or by all contributing to one good, or are they rather one by analogy? Certainly as sight is in the body, so is reason in the soul, and so on in other cases.

There is no such thing as philosophy-free science, just science that has been conducted without any consideration of its underlying philosophical assumptions.

Whence? wither? why? how? - these questions cover all philosophy.

The first principles of the universe are atoms and empty space; everything else is merely thought to exist.

Each of the parts of philosophy is a philosophical whole, a circle rounded and complete in itself. In each of these parts, however, the philosophical Idea is found in a particular specificality or medium. The single circle, because it is a real totality, bursts through the limits imposed by its special medium, and gives rise to a wider circle. The whole of philosophy in this way resembles a circle of circles. The Idea appears in each single circle, but, at the same time, the whole Idea is constituted by the system of these peculiar phases, and each is a necessary member of the organisation.

Being is desirable because it is identical with Beauty, and Beauty is loved because it is Being.

I should . . . prefer swallowing one incomprehensibility rather than two. It requires one effort only to admit the single incomprehensibility of matter endowed with thought, and two to believe, first that of an existence called spirit, of which we have neither evidence nor idea, and then secondly how that spirit, which has neither extension nor solidity, can put material organs into motion.

Nonbeing must in some sense be, otherwise what is it that there is not? This tangled doctrine might be nicknamed Plato's beard; historically it has proved tough, frequently dulling the edge of Occam's razor.

There is philosophy, which is about conceptual analysis - about the meaning of what we say - and there is all of this ... all of life.

His main principles were indeed as follows: everything it is possible to imagine can also exist.

The great question, whether man is of nature or above her.