Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck, commonly known as Max Planck, was a German theoretical physicist who postulated Planck’s quantum theory which fetched him the Nobel Prize in Physics. He revolutionized the study of Atomic and sub-atomic particles through his quantum theory. The Plank’s constant and the Planck’s law of black body radiation are heavily applied in the study of quantum Physics. Along with the Nobel Prize, he bagged various honors namely the Lorentz Medal, Copley Medal, Max Planck Medal and Goethe Prize. Various other equations, formulae and laws such as Fokker–Planck equation, Kelvin–Planck statement of the Second Law of Thermodynamics and Nernst–Planck equation are named after this great physicist. He was one of the only few to derive corollaries from Einstein’s special theory of relativity. He was vocal about subjects such as success, happiness, truth, innovation, creativity, knowledge, wisdom and science. We have curated Planck’s notable quotes from his writings, research papers, observations, interviews etc. Let us go through some of the popular quotes from this Nobel laureate.
Max PlanckMax Planck > Quotes
“Insight must precede application.”
― Max Planck
“The goal is nothing other than the coherence and completeness of the system not only in respect of all details, but also in respect of all physicists of all places, all times, all peoples, and all cultures.”
― Max Planck, The Dilemmas of an Upright Man: Max Planck and the Fortunes of German Science, with a New Afterword
“We have no right to assume that any physical laws exist, or if they have existed up until now, that they will continue to exist in a similar manner in the future.”
― Max Planck
“Science advances one funeral at a time.”
― Max Planck
“It is not the possession of truth, but the success which attends the seeking after it, that enriches the seeker and brings happiness to him.”
― Max Planck, Where is Science Going?
“All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together.
We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.”
― Max Planck
“An experiment is a question which science poses to Nature and a measurement is the recording of Nature’s answer.”
“I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.”
― Max Planck
“Experiment is the only means of knowledge at our disposal. Everything else is poetry, imagination.”
― Max Planck
“New scientific ideas never spring from a communal body, however organized, but rather from the head of an individually inspired researcher who struggles with his problems in lonely thought and unites all his thought on one single point which is his whole world for the moment.”
― Max Planck
“As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clearheaded science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about the atoms this much: There is no matter as such! All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particles of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. . . . We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix of all matter.”
― Max Planck, The New Science
“The assumption of an absolute determinism is the essential foundation of every scientific enquiry.”
― Max Planck, The Dilemmas of an Upright Man: Max Planck and the Fortunes of German Science, with a New Afterword
“This is one of man’s oldest riddles. How can the independence of human volition be harmonized with the fact that we are integral parts of a universe which is subject to the rigid order of nature’s laws?”
― Max Planck, Where is Science Going?
“Science enhances the moral value of life, because it furthers a love of truth and reverence—love of truth displaying itself in the constant endeavor to arrive at a more exact knowledge of the world of mind and matter around us, and reverence, because every advance in knowledge brings us face to face with the mystery of our own being.”
― Max Planck, Where is Science Going?
“Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.”
― Max Planck, Where is Science Going?
“A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.”
― Max Planck, Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers
“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
― Max Planck
“The highest court is in the end one’s own conscience and conviction—that goes for you and for Einstein and every other physicist—and before any science there is first of all belief.”
― Max Planck, The Dilemmas of an Upright Man: Max Planck and the Fortunes of German Science, with a New Afterword
“[I do not believe] in a personal God, let alone a Christian God.”
― Max Planck, The Dilemmas of an Upright Man: Max Planck and the Fortunes of German Science, with a New Afterword
“Before an experiment can be performed, it must be planned—the question to nature must be formulated before being posed. Before the result of a measurement can be used, it must be interpreted—nature’s answer must be understood properly. These two tasks are those of the theorist, who finds himself always more and more dependent on the tools of abstract mathematics. Of course, this does not mean that the experimenter does not also engage in theoretical deliberations. The foremost classical example of a major achievement produced by such a division of labor is the creation of spectrum analysis by the joint efforts of Robert Bunsen, the experimenter, and Gustav Kirchhoff, the theorist. Since then, spectrum analysis has been continually developing and bearing ever richer fruit.”
― Max Planck
“Religion and natural science are fighting a joint battle in an incessant, never relaxing crusade against skepticism and against dogmatism, against unbelief and superstition… [and therefore] ‘On to God!”
― Max Planck
“The Theory of Relativity confers an absolute meaning on a magnitude which in classical theory has only a relative significance: the velocity of light. The velocity of light is to the Theory of Relativity as the elementary quantum of action is to the Quantum Theory: it is its absolute core.”
― Max Planck, Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers
“When I began my physical studies [in Munich in 1874] and sought advice from my venerable teacher Philipp von Jolly…he portrayed to me physics as a highly developed, almost fully matured science…Possibly in one or another nook there would perhaps be a dust particle or a small bubble to be examined and classified, but the system as a whole stood there fairly secured, and theoretical physics approached visibly that degree of perfection which, for example, geometry has had already for centuries.”
― Max Planck
“As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clearheaded science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about the atoms this much: There is no matter as such! All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particles of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together…We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix of all matter.”
― Max Planck
“An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: What does happen is that the opponents gradually die out.”
― Max Planck
“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change”
― Max Planck
“In allem Streben und Forschen suche ich hinter dem Geheimnis des Lichtstrahls ehrfürchtig das Geheimnis des göttlichen Geistes.”
― Max Planck
“We cannot rest and sit down lest we rust and decay. Health is maintained only through work. And as it is with all life so it is with science. We are always struggling from the relative to the absolute.”
― Max Planck, Where is Science Going?
“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.”
― Max Planck, The Universe in the Light of Modern Physics
“Science…means unresting endeavor and continually progressing development toward an aim which the poetic intuition may apprehend, but the intellect can never fully grasp.”
― Max Planck
All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force… We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix of all matter. Max Planck
A scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.Max Planck
“I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.”
— Max Planck
“An experiment is a question which science poses to Nature and a measurement is the recording of Nature’s answer.”
— Max Planck
“A scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.”
— Max Planck
“Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.”
— Max Planck
“Science enhances the moral value of life, because it furthers a love of truth and reverence-love of truth displaying itself in the constant endeavor to arrive at a more exact knowledge of the world of mind and matter around us, and reverence, because every advance in knowledge brings us face to face with the mystery of our own being.”
— Max Planck
“We have no right to assume that any physical laws exist, or if they have existed up until now, that they will continue to exist in a similar manner in the future.”
— Max Planck
Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve. Max Planck
Anybody who has been seriously engaged in scientific work of any kind realizes that over the entrance to the gates of the temple of science are written the words: ‘Ye must have faith.’”
— Max Planck
“All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force… We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix of all matter.”
— Max Planck
“The man who cannot occasionally imagine events and conditions of existence that are contrary to the causal principle as he knows it will never enrich his science by the addition of a new idea.”
— Max Planck
“There can never be any real opposition between religion and science; for the one is the complement of the other. Every serious and reflective person realizes, I think, that the religious element in his nature must be recognized and cultivated if all the powers of the human soul are to act together in perfect balance and harmony. And indeed it was not by accident that the greatest thinkers of all ages were deeply religious souls”
— Max Planck
“It is not the possession of truth, but the success which attends the seeking after it, that enriches the seeker and brings happiness to him.”
— Max Planck
“It is impossible to make a clear cut between science, religion, and art. The whole is never equal simply to the sum of its various parts.”
— Max Planck
“As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.”
— Max Planck
“The pioneer scientist must have “a vivid intuitive imagination, for new ideas are not generated by deduction, but by artistically creative imagination.””
— Max Planck
“Science advances one funeral at a time.”
— Max Planck
“New scientific ideas never spring from a communal body, however organized, but rather from the head of an individually inspired researcher who struggles with his problems in lonely thought and unites all his thought on one single point which is his whole world for the moment.”
— Max Planck
“A scientist is happy, not in resting on his attainments but in the steady acquisition of fresh knowledge.”
— Max Planck
“I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as a derivative of consciousness.”
— Max Planck
“I had always looked upon the search for the absolute as the noblest and most worth while task of science.”
— Max Planck
“We are in a position similar to that of a mountaineer who is wandering over uncharted spaces, and never knows whether behind the peak which he sees in front of him and which he tries to scale there may not be another peak still beyond and higher up.”
— Max Planck
“The history of all times and nations teaches us that exactly in the naïve, unshakable belief, furnished by religion in active life of believers, originate the most intense motives for the most significant creative performance, not only in the field of arts and sciences but also in politics.”
— Max Planck
“What led me to my science and what fascinated me from a young age was the, by no means self-evident, fact that our laws of thought agree with the regularities found in the succession of impressions we receive from the external world, that it is thus possible for the human being to gain enlightenment regarding these regularities by means of pure thought”
— Max Planck
“The scientist needs an artistically creative imagination.”
— Max Planck
“The highest court is in the end one’s own conscience and conviction-that goes for you and for Einstein and every other physicist-and before any science there is first of all belief. For me, it is belief in a complete lawfulness in everything that happens.”
— Max Planck
“Farsighted theologians are now working to mine the eternal metal from the teachings of Jesus and to forge it for all time.”
— Max Planck
“If E is considered to be a continuously divisible quantity, this distribution is possible in infinitely many ways. We consider, however-this is the most essential point of the whole calculation-E to be composed of a well-defined number of equal parts and use thereto the constant of nature h = 6.55 ×10-27 erg sec. This constant multiplied by the common frequency ? of the resonators gives us the energy element E in erg, and dividing E by E we get the number P of energy elements which must be divided over the N resonators.”
— Max Planck
“Science does not mean an idle resting upon a body of certain knowledge; it means unresting endeavor and continually progressing development toward an end which the poetic intuition may apprehend, but which the intellect can never fully grasp.”
— Max Planck
“Scientific discovery and scientific knowledge have been achieved only by those who have gone in pursuit of it without any practical purpose whatsoever in view.”
— Max Planck
“What seems today inconceivable will appear one day, from a higher stand point, quite simple and harmonious.”
— Max Planck
The whole strenuous intellectual work of an industrious research worker would appear, after all, in vain and hopeless, if he were not occasionally through some striking facts to find that he had, at the end of all his criss-cross journeys, at last accomplished at least one step which was conclusively nearer the truth.”
— Max Planck
A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.
Max Planck
Best Max Planck Quotes
Here are some famous Max Planck Quotes.
“What seems today inconceivable will appear one day, from a higher stand point, quite simple and harmonious.”
- Max Planck.
“Those [scientists] who dislike entertaining contradictory thoughts are unlikely to enrich their science with new ideas.”
- Max Planck. “No burden is so heavy for a man to bear as a succession of happy days.”
- Max Planck.
“Anybody who has been seriously engaged in scientific work of any kind realizes that over the entrance to the gates of the temple of science are written the words: ‘Ye must have faith.'”
- Max Planck. “The goal is nothing other than the coherence and completeness of the system.”
- Max Planck. “Religion and natural science are fighting a joint battle in an incessant, never relaxing crusade against skepticism and against dogmatism, against unbelief and superstition.”
- Max Planck. “An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: What does happen is that the opponents gradually die out.”
- Max Planck. “Health is maintained only through work.”
- Max Planck.
“The man who cannot occasionally imagine events and conditions of existence that are contrary to the causal principle as he knows it will never enrich his science by the addition of a new idea.”
- Max Planck. “We cannot rest and sit down lest we rust and decay.”
- Max Planck.