Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.
Max PlanckRead
Anybody who has been seriously engaged in scientific work of any kind realizes that over the entrance to the gates of the temple of science are written the words: 'Ye must have faith.'
Interpretation
Scientific inquiry requires a profound belief in the principles and potential of science.
Max Planck's quote emphasizes that despite the rigorous methods and evidence-based approach of science, there remains an essential element of faith in the scientific endeavor. This faith is not a blind belief, but rather a deep trust in the scientific process, the quest for knowledge, and the hope that future discoveries will unravel the mysteries of the universe.
In practice
In a presentation about the importance of scientific research, this quote can emphasize the role of belief in innovation.
Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.
No burden is so heavy for a man to bear as a succession of happy days.
It is not the possession of truth, but the success which attends the seeking after it, that enriches the seeker and brings happiness to him.
We have no right to assume that any physical laws exist, or if they have existed up until now, that they will continue to exist in a similar manner in the future.
Experiment is the only means of knowledge at our disposal. Everything else is poetry, imagination.
There is no matter as such—mind is the matrix of all matter.
I can never look now at the Milky Way without wondering from which of those banked clouds of stars the emissaries are coming. If you will pardon so commonplace a simile, we have set off the fire alarm and have nothing to do but to wait. I do not think we will have to wait for long.
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction
That the fundamental aspects of heredity should have turned out to be so extraordinarily simple supports us in the hope that nature may, after all, be entirely approachable. Her much-advertised inscrutability has once more been found to be an illusion due to our ignorance. This is encouraging, for, if the world in which we live were as complicated as some of our friends would have us believe we might well despair that biology could ever become an exact science.
The sensitive plate, the gas which is ionised, the fluorescent screen, are in reality receivers, into another kind of energy, chemical energy, ionic energy... luminous energy.
Please join me in applauding the ESA - European Space Agency’s historic efforts with the Rosetta Mission and landing a spacecraft on rotating comet. It may seem like a work of fiction, but it is very real, very impressive, and will help us to further uncover the mysteries surrounding the formation of the solar system. They made a beautiful short film using an imaginary landscape to illustrate today’s historic feat.
Like the entomologist in search of colorful butterflies, my attention has chased in the gardens of the grey matter cells with delicate and elegant shapes, the mysterious butterflies of the soul, whose beating of wings may one day reveal to us the secrets of the mind.
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