Werner Heisenberg
German · 1901–1976
Theoretical physicist who created quantum mechanics and formulated the uncertainty principle, winning the Nobel Prize in 1932.
Wikipedia ↗“What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.”
English
“Die Atome oder Elementarteilchen selbst sind nicht real; sie bilden eine Welt von Möglichkeiten oder Potentialitäten und nicht eine Welt von Dingen oder Tatsachen.”
German
“The atoms or elementary particles themselves are not real; they form a world of potentialities or possibilities rather than one of things or facts.”
“Not only is the universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think.”
English
The original version is by J.B.S. Haldane in Possible Worlds (1927): "The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose." Attribution to Heisenberg is disputed.