If quantum mechanics hasn't profoundly shocked you, you haven't understood it yet.
Interpretation
Quantum mechanics challenges our understanding of reality and requires deep contemplation.
Niels Bohr's quote emphasizes the profound complexity and counterintuitive nature of quantum mechanics, suggesting that if one fully grasps its implications, they would be deeply affected by the radical departure from traditional physics our understanding of the universe entails. It serves as a reminder that true comprehension of the subject is not just intellectual but also emotional, prompting a sense of awe and reconsideration of our place in the cosmos.
In practice
A physics teacher might use this quote to spark interest in the complexities of quantum mechanics in a classroom discussion.
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.
Given the opportunity, under the right conditions, two cells from wildly different sources, a yeast cell, say, and a chicken erythrocyte, will touch, fuse, and the two nuclei will then fuse as well, and the new hybrid cell will now divide into monstrous progeny. Naked cells, lacking self-respect, do not seem to have any sense of self.
That which is measured improves. That which is measured and reported improves exponentially.
The progress of Science consists in observing interconnections and in showing with a patient ingenuity that the events of this ever-shifting world are but examples of a few general relations, called laws. To see what is general in what is particular, and what is permanent in what is transitory, is the aim of scientific thought.
The human race may be the only intelligent beings in the galaxy.
Scientific discovery may not be better than sex, but the satisfaction lasts longer.
The physicist is like someone who's watching people playing chess and, after watching a few games, he may have worked out what the moves in the game are. But understanding the rules is just a trivial preliminary on the long route from being a novice to being a grand master. So even if we understand all the laws of physics, then exploring their consequences in the everyday world where complex structures can exist is a far more daunting task, and that's an inexhaustible one I'm sure.
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