Louis de Broglie > Quotes

“After long reflection in solitude and meditation, I suddenly had the idea, during the year 1923, that the discovery made by Einstein in 1905 should be generalised by extending it to all material particles and notably to electrons.”
― Louis de Broglie

“Vulnerable, like all men, to the temptations of arrogance, of which intellectual pride is the worst, he [the scientist] must nevertheless remain sincere and modest, if only because his studies constantly bring home to him that, compared with the gigantic aims of science, his own contribution, no matter how important, is only a drop in the ocean of truth.”
― Louis de Broglie, Nouvelles perspectives en microphysique

“Many scientists have tried to make determinism and complementarity the basis of conclusions that seem to me weak and dangerous; for instance, they have used Heisenberg's uncertainty principle to bolster up human free will, though his principle, which applies exclusively to the behavior of electrons and is the direct result of microphysical measurement techniques, has nothing to do with human freedom of choice. It is far safer and wiser that the physicist remain on the solid ground of theoretical physics itself and eschew the shifting sands of philosophic extrapolations.”
― Louis de Broglie, Nouvelles perspectives en microphysique

“Science itself, no matter whether it is the search for truth or merely the need to gain control over the external world, to alleviate suffering, or to prolong life, is ultimately a matter of feeling, or rather, of desire-the desire to know or the desire to realize.”
― Louis de Broglie, Nouvelles perspectives en microphysique

“The history of science shows that the progress of science has constantly been hampered by the tyrannical influence of certain conceptions that finally came to be considered as dogma. For this reason, it is proper to submit periodically to a very searching examination, principles that we have come to assume without any more discussion.”
― Louis de Broglie

“But it may be that these "idealizations", the overly simplified and highly rigid products of our minds, can never be applied exactly to reality. ... we could hold, contrary to Descartes, that nothing is more misleading than a clear and distinct idea. But it is wise to stop at this dangerous point and return to physics.”
― Louis de Broglie