Quantum physics thus reveals a basic oneness of the universe.
Erwin SchrodingerRead
I am very astonished that the scientific picture of the real world around me is deficient. It gives a lot of factual information, puts all our experience in a magnificently consistent order, but it is ghastly silent about all and sundry that is really near to our heart, that really matters to us. It cannot tell us a word about red and blue, bitter and sweet, physical pain and physical delight; it knows nothing of beautiful and ugly, good or bad, God and eternity.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Scientific understanding is limited and does not encompass the full spectrum of human experience.
In this quote, Erwin Schrödinger expresses his astonishment at the inadequacy of the scientific framework to fully capture the nuances of human experiences and emotions. While science can provide an extensive and consistent description of the physical world and objective facts, it fails to address the subjective and existential concerns that truly define our lives, such as the concepts of beauty, morality, and the divine, which are foundational to our existence and understanding of meaning.
Themes
SciencePhilosophyExperienceEmotionMeaningExistenceReality
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on the limitations of science in understanding human experience, this quote can highlight the need to consider philosophical perspectives.
More from Erwin Schrodinger
All quotes →A careful analysis of the process of observation in atomic physics has shown that the subatomic particles have no meaning as isolated entities, but can only be understood as interconnections between the preparation of an experiment and the subsequent measurement.
Erwin SchrodingerRead
There is no kind of framework within which we can find consciousness in the plural; this is simply something we construct because of the temporal plurality of individuals, but it is a false construction... The only solution to this conflict insofar as any is available to us at all lies in the ancient wisdom of the Upanishad.
Erwin SchrodingerRead
Vedanta teaches that consciousness is singular, all happenings are played out in one universal consciousness and there is no multiplicity of selves.
Erwin SchrodingerRead
Consciousness is a singular for which there is no plural.
Erwin SchrodingerRead
What we observe as material bodies and forces are nothing but shapes and variations in the structure of space.
Erwin SchrodingerRead
Similar quotes
Pride is the parent of destruction; pride eats the mind and the heart and the soul alive.
Anne RiceRead
Sometimes immense things, like war and death and aging, are best seen from the corner of the eye and written of only obliquely, with tremendous lightness.
Lauren GroffRead
Be yourself and think for yourself, and while your conclusions may not be infallible they will be nearer right than the inclusions forced upon you by those who have a personal interest in keeping you in ignorance.
Elbert HubbardRead
The things we want are transformative, and we don’t know or only think we know what is on the other side of that transformation Never to get lost is not to live.
Rebecca SolnitRead
Beware lest in your anxiety to avoid war you obtain a master
DemosthenesRead
My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities. I am truly a 'lone traveler' and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude.
Albert EinsteinRead