5 Amazing Quotes By Max Planck On Science

Max Planck [1858-1947] was a German physicist who discovered energy quanta and laid the foundations of quantum mechanics in 1900. This won him the Nobel Prize in physics in 1918.

Best known for Planck's constant, denoted by h, Planck was a devout man who believed that his work with subatomic particles revealed to him the deepest secret of the universe.

According to Max Planck, the very greatest scientists of all times - such as Kepler, Newton, Leibniz - were permeated by a most profound religious attitude.

Early life

Max Planck was the sixth child in a family of intellectuals. His teacher Hermann Muller recognized the young talent and taught Planck astronomy and mathematics early on, aged 12.

Planck was gifted when it came to music. He played piano, organ and cello, and composed songs of his own. However, instead of music he chose physics for a career.

Planck's professor at University of Munich advised him not to study physics because in that field "almost everything is already discovered." Planck replied he just wanted to know more about the universe.

However, by discovering quantum theory Max Planck opened a whole new field of quantum mechanics which in turn gave rise to modern technology.

Quotes by Planck

1. Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination.

2. Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. That is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are part of nature and therefore part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.

3. We have no right to assume that any physical laws exist, or if they have existed up to now, that they will continue to exist in a similar manner in the future.

4. What we perceive as matter is merely the manifestation of a force that causes the subatomic particles to oscillate and holds them together in the tiniest solar system of the universe.

5. Over the entrance to the gates of the temple of science are written the words: Ye must have faith. It is a quality which the scientist cannot dispense with.