An independant reality in the ordinary physical sense can neither be ascribed to the phenomenon nor to the agencies of observation.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that reality cannot be fully understood through observation alone, as both the phenomena and observers influence it.
Niels Bohr's quote emphasizes the complex relationship between reality, phenomena, and the observers who study them. It highlights the idea that our understanding of reality is not purely objective, as both the phenomena we observe and the observational tools and methods we employ shape our interpretation of the world. This challenges traditional notions of an independent reality and invites deeper contemplation about how knowledge is constructed.
In practice
During a lecture on quantum mechanics, one might quote Bohr to illustrate the intricacies of measurement and reality.
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 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.
Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real.
After a certain number of years, our faces become our biographies.
The world doesn't want to be punished. It wants to remain in darkness. It doesn't want to be told that what it believes is false. If you also don't want to be corrected, then you might as well leave the church and spend your time at the bar and brothel. But if you want to be saved-and remember that there's another life after this one-you must accept correction.
So long as the laws remain such as they are today, employ some discretion: loud opinion forces us to do so; but in privacy and silence let us compensate ourselves for that cruel chastity we are obliged to display in public.
If God is treated as God during suffering, then suffering can reveal and present him in all his greatness.
Death undoes us less, sometimes, than the hope that it will never come.
In this culture, the phrase 'black woman' is not synonymous with 'tender,' or 'gentle.' It's as if those words couldn't possibly speak to the reality of black females.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.