Physics is very muddled again at the moment; it is much too hard for me anyway, and I wish I were a movie comedian or something like that and had never heard anything about physics!
Interpretation
The quote expresses frustration with the complexity of physics and a longing for a simpler, more entertaining profession.
Wolfgang Pauli humorously reflects on the challenges and frustrations of understanding advanced physics, admitting that it feels overly complicated for him. His wish to be a movie comedian instead highlights a desire for a simpler, more enjoyable life, contrasting the heavy intellectual burden of scientific inquiry.
In practice
Use this quote to highlight the challenges faced in advanced studies during a seminar.
The layman always means, when he says "reality" that he is speaking of something self-evidently known; whereas to me it seems the most important and exceedingly difficult task of our time is to work on the construction of a new idea of reality.
That's not right. That's not even wrong.
The fact that the author thinks slowly is not serious, but the fact that he publishes faster than he thinks is inexcusable.
What really matters for me is ... the more active role of the observer in quantum physics ... According to quantum physics the observer has indeed a new relation to the physical events around him in comparison with the classical observer, who is merely a spectator.
I confess, that very different from you, I do find sometimes scientific inspiration in mysticism ... but this is counterbalanced by an immediate sense for mathematics.
This isn't right. This isn't even wrong.
Carl Sagan spoke fluently between biology and geology and astrophysics and physics. If you move fluently across those boundaries, you realize that science is everywhere; science is not something you can step around or sweep under the rug.
Science is a way of getting knowledge. It's a method. It's a method that really relies on making mistakes. We propose ideas, they are usually wrong, and we test them against the data. Scientists do this in a formal way. It's a way that everyone can go through life; that's how we should be teaching science from a very young age.
I was an embarrassment to the department when they did research assessment exercises. A message would go round the department: 'Please give a list of your recent publications.' And I would send back a statement: 'None.'
Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone.
Nuclear energy, in terms of an overall safety record, is better than other energy.
'Science in itself' is nothing, for it exists only in the human beings who are its bearers. 'Science for its own sake' usually means nothing more than science for the sake of the people who happen to be pursuing it.
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