It is the hallmark of any deep truth that its negation is also a deep truth.
Interpretation
Deep truths often possess dualities where their opposites are equally profound.
Niels Bohr's quote suggests that truths are often complex and multifaceted, indicating that understanding one aspect of a truth can lead to the realization that its opposite also holds validity. This reflects the idea that knowledge is not simply binary but rather exists within a spectrum where opposing concepts can coexist as meaningful and profound.
In practice
In a philosophical discussion about the nature of truth.
When asked ... [about] an underlying quantum world, Bohr would answer, 'There is no quantum world. There is only an abstract quantum physical description. It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how nature is. Physics concerns what we can say about Nature.'
An independant reality in the ordinary physical sense can neither be ascribed to the phenomenon nor to the agencies of observation.
An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field.
Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it.
When searching for harmony in life one must never forget that in the drama of existence we are ourselves both actors and spectators.
And anyone who thinks they can talk about quantum theory without feeling dizzy hasn't yet understood the first thing about it.
Pundits are always blaming TV for making people stupid, movies for desensitizing the world to violence, and rock music for making kids take drugs and kill themselves. These things should be the least of our worries. The main problem with mass media is that it makes it impossible to fall in love with any acumen of normalcy. There is no 'normal,' because everybody is being twisted by the same sources simultaneously.
Surely we cannot take an open question like the supernatural and shut it with a bang, turning the key of the madhouse on all the mystics of history. You cannot take the region of the unknown and calmly say that, though you know nothing about it, you know all the gates are locked. We do not know enough about the unknown to know that it is unknowable.
It is with rivers as it is with people: the greatest are not always the most agreeable nor the best to live with.
Hell is paved with good intentions, not with bad ones. All men mean well.
Art thou angry with him whose armpits stink? Art thou angry with him whose mouth smells foul?
The Charter of the United Nations expresses the noblest aspirations of man: abjuration of force in the settlement of disputes between states; the assurance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion; the safeguarding of international peace and security.
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