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.
Science is founded on uncertainty. Each time we learn something new and surprising, the astonishment comes with the realization that we were wrong before.
The internal machinery of life, the chemistry of the parts, is something beautiful. And it turns out that all life is interconnected with all other life.
There may be aliens in our Milky Way galaxy, and there are billions of other galaxies. The probability is almost certain that there is life somewhere in space.
If you want to find out anything from the theoretical physicists about the methods they use, I advise you to stick closely to one principle: don't listen to their words, fix your attention on their deeds. To him who is a discoverer in this field the products of his imagination appear so necessary and natural that he regards them, and would like to have them regarded by others, not as creations of thought but as given realities.
The incredible diversity oflife on this planet, most of which is microbial, can only beunderstood in an evolutionary framework
We're in very bad trouble if we don't understand the planet we're trying to save.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.