Epistemology Quotes

It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how Nature is.

Physics concerns what we say about Nature. 

— Niels Bohr

When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. 

The poet, too, is not nearly so concerned with describing facts 

as with creating images.

— Niels Bohr

Natural science does not simply describe and explain nature; 

it is part of the interplay between nature and ourselves.

– Werner Heisenberg

What we observe is not nature itself, 

but nature exposed to our method of questioning.

— Werner Heisenberg

The only source of knowledge is experience.

— Albert Einstein

The verbal interpretation, on the other hand, 

i.e. the metaphysics of quantum physics, 

is on far less solid ground. 

In fact, in more than forty years 

physicists have not been able to provide 

a clear metaphysical model.

— Erwin Schrödinger

The mathematics is not there till we put it there.

— Arthur Eddington

No phenomenon is a real phenomenon until it is an observed phenomenon.

― John Archibald Wheeler

The universe gives birth to consciousness, 

and consciousness gives meaning to the universe.

― John Archibald Wheeler