The Belief That There Is Only One

It Is Natural That A Man Should Consider The Work Of His Hands Or His Brain To Be Useful And Important. Therefore Nobody Will Object To An Ardent Experimentalist Boasting Of His Measurements And Rather Looking Down On The 'paper And Ink' Physics Of His Theoretical Friend, Who On His Part Is Proud Of His Lofty Ideas And Despises The Dirty Fingers Of The Other. Experiment And Theory In Physics

If Alpha [the Fine-structure Constant] Were Bigger Than It Really Is, We Should Not Be Able To Distinguish Matter From Ether [the Vacuum, Nothingness], And Our Task To Disentangle The Natural Laws Would Be Hopelessly Difficult. The Fact However That Alpha Has Just Its Value 1/137 Is Certainly No Chance But Itself A Law Of Nature. It Is Clear That The Explanation Of This Number Must Be The Central Problem Of Natural Philosophy.

But In Practical Affairs, Particularly In Politics, Men Are Needed Who Combine Human Experience And Interest In Human Relations With A Knowledge Of Science And Technology. Moreover, They Must Be Men Of Action And Not Contemplation. I Have The Impression That No Method Of Education Can Produce People With All The Qualities Required. I Am Haunted By The Idea That This Break In Human Civilization, Caused By The Discovery Of The Scientific Method, May Be Irreparable.

To Present A Scientific Subject In An Attractive And Stimulating Manner Is An Artistic Task, Similar To That Of A Novelist Or Even A Dramatic Writer. The Same Holds For Writing Textbooks.

His [erwin Schrödinger's] Private Life Seemed Strange To Bourgeois People Like Ourselves. But All This Does Not Matter. He Was A Most Lovable Person, Independent, Amusing, Temperamental, Kind And Generous, And He Had A Most Perfect And Efficient Brain.