Max Planck Quotes

Understanding the laws of nature does not mean that we are immune to their operations.

Physics is based on the assumption that certain fundamental features of nature are constant.

The same law takes place in a system, consisting of many bodies, as in one single body, with regard to their persevering in their state of motion or of rest. For the progressive motion, whether of one single body or of a whole system of bodies, is always to be estimated from the motion of the center of gravity.

Symmetry principles are principles governing the laws of nature that say those laws look the same if you change your point of view in certain ways.

Every description of natural processes must be based on ideas which have been introduced and defined by the classical theory.

Nothing can create something all the time due to the laws of quantum mechanics, and it's - it's fascinatingly interesting.

'Incontrovertible' is not a scientific word. Nothing is incontrovertible in science.

Physics has a history of synthesizing many phenomena into a few theories.

In physics, all can you do is predict the consequences of physical laws.

It is just physics - who can argue with Newton and the first law of thermodynamics?

It is absolutely impossible to transcend the laws of nature. What can change in historically different circumstances is only the form in which these laws expose themselves.

The National Academy of Sciences would be unable to give a unanimous decision if asked whether the sun would rise tomorrow.

The particle and the planet are subject to the same laws and what is learned of one will be known of the other.

Modern science is predicated on 'truths' verified through accurate observation and measurements of physical world phenomena.

The existence of symmetry laws is in full accordance with our daily experience. The simplest of these symmetries, the isotropy and homogeneity of space, are concepts that date back to the early history of human thought.

Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window.

The past history of our globe must be explained by what can be seen to be happening now. No powers are to be employed that are not natural to the globe, no action to be admitted except those of which we know the principle.

The universe is governed by science. But science tells us that we can't solve the equations, directly in the abstract.

There are 15 main theories in physics, and we know all of them. If there weren't a finite number of theories, there would not be a point to physics.

It always seems odd to me that the fundamental laws of physics, when discovered, can appear in so many different forms that are not apparently identical at first, but, with a little mathematical fiddling, you can show the relationship.

We gain our ends only with the laws of nature; we control her only by understanding her laws.

Science affects all our ways of thinking about the world: both the physical world, which, if I may make so bold, is easy to understand because it is regular and follows simple laws, and also the social world, which is more baffling and less predictable.

I strongly believe that the fundamental laws of nature are not emergent phenomena.

Something cannot emerge from nothing.

If you believe in science, like I do, you believe that there are certain laws that are always obeyed.