The old saying of the two kinds of truth. To the one kind belongs statements so simple and clear that the opposite assertion obviously could not be defended. The other kind, the so-called 'deep truths', are statements in which the opposite also contains deep truth.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the distinction between simple truths and complex, dual-layered truths.
Niels Bohr's quote illuminates the complexity of truth by categorizing it into two types: simple truths that are straightforward and indisputable, and deep truths that encompass a duality, suggesting that opposing viewpoints can hold their own validity. This perspective encourages a nuanced understanding of concepts where both sides may reveal significant insights, prompting deeper contemplation rather than rigid adherence to one truth.
In practice
In a debate about morality, one might reference this quote to illustrate how ethical dilemmas often contain multiple valid perspectives.
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.
Storms rumble beyond the horizon, and the fires of heaven purge the earth. There is no salvation without destruction, no hope this side of death.
He lived in chambers that had once belonged to his deceased partner. They were a gloomy suite of rooms, in a lowering pile of building up a yard, where it had so little business to be, that one could scarcely help fancying it must have run there when it was a young house, playing at hide-and-seek with other houses, and forgotten the way out again.
The world owes us nothing; we owe each other the world.
Through forgiveness, which essentially means recognizing the insubstantiality of the past and allowing the present moment to be as it is, the miracle of transformation happens not only within but also without.
Our minds possess by nature an insatiable desire to know the truth.
After every war someone has to tidy up.
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