He was a German-born physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics and supervised the work of a number of notable physicists in the 1920s and 30s. Max Born won the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physics.
(1882 – 1970)
– Max Born Quotes –
The belief that there is only one truth and that oneself is in possession of it seems to me the deepest root of all evil that is in the world.
~ Max Born
We need to make a world in which fewer children are born, and in which we take better care of them.
~ Max Born
Intellect distinguishes between the possible and the impossible reason distinguishes between the sensible and the senseless. Even the possible can be senseless.
~ Max Born
It is true that many scientists are not philosophically minded and have hitherto shown much skill and ingenuity but little wisdom.
~ Max Born
The question of whether the waves are something ‘real’ or a function to describe and predict phenomena in a convenient way is a matter of taste. I personally like to regard a probability wave, even in 3N-dimensional space, as a real thing, certainly as more than a tool for mathematical calculations. … Quite generally, how could we rely on probability predictions if by this notion we do not refer to something real and objective?
~ Max Born
If God has made the world a perfect mechanism, He has at least conceded so much to our imperfect intellects that in order to predict little parts of it, we need not solve innumerable differential equations, but can use dice with fair success.
~ Max Born
believe there is no philosophical high-road in science, with epistemological signposts. No, we are in a jungle and find our way by trial and error, building our road behind us as we proceed.
~ Max Born
The question of whether the waves are something “real” or a function to describe and predict phenomena in a convenient way is a matter of taste. I personally like to regard a probability wave, even in 3N-dimensional space, as a real thing, certainly as more than a tool for mathematical calculations
~ Max Born
No concealed parameters can be introduced with the help of which the indeterministic description could be transformed into a deterministic one. Hence if a future theory should be deterministic, it cannot be a modification of the present one but must be essentially different.
~ Max Born
One obvious objection to the hypothesis of an elastic Aether (Space) arises from the necessity of ascribing to it the great rigidity it must have to account for the high velocity of Waves. Such a substance would necessarily offer resistance to the motion of heavenly bodies, particularly to that of planets.
~ Max Born
Astronomy has never detected departures from Newton’s Laws of Motion that would point to such a resistance.
~ Max Born
I am now convinced that theoretical physics is actual philosophy
~ Max Born
I believe that ideas such as absolute certitude, absolute exactness, final truth, etc. are figments of the imagination which should not be admissible in any field of science… This loosening of thinking seems to me to be the greatest blessing which modern science has given to us. For the belief in a single truth and in being the possessor thereof is the root cause of all evil in the world.
~ Max Born
There are two objectionable types of believers: those who believe the incredible, and those who believe that “belief” must be discarded and replaced by “the scientific method.
~ Max Born
All attempts to adapt our ethical code to our situation in the technological age have failed.
~ Max Born
His [Erwin Schrödinger’s] private life seemed strange to bourgeois people like ourselves. But all this does not matter. He was a most lovable person, independent, amusing, temperamental, kind and generous, and he had a most perfect and efficient brain.
~ Max Born
Science has become an integral and most important part of our civilization, and scientific work means contributing to its development. Science in our technical age has social, economic, and political functions, and however remote one’s own work is from technical application it is a link in the chain of actions and decisions which determine the fate of the human race. I realized this aspect of science in its full impact only after Hiroshima.
~ Max Born
I have tried to read philosophers of all ages and have found many illuminating ideas but no steady progress toward deeper knowledge and understanding.
~ Max Born
To present a scientific subject in an attractive and stimulating manner is an artistic task, similar to that of a novelist or even a dramatic writer. The same holds for writing textbooks.
~ Max Born
There is no other way of giving a pictorial description of motions—we have to apply it even in the region of atomic processes, where classical physics breaks down.
~ Max Born
There are two objectionable types of believers: those who believe the incredible and those who believe that ‘belief’ must be discarded and replaced by ‘the scientific method’.
~ Max Born
