I Am Become Death, The Destroyer Of

[about The Great Synthesis Of Atomic Physics In The 1920s:] It Was A Heroic Time. It Was Not The Doing Of Any One Man; It Involved The Collaboration Of Scores Of Scientists From Many Different Lands. But From The First To Last The Deeply Creative, Subtle And Critical Spirit Of Niels Bohr Guided, Restrained, Deepened And Finally Transmuted The Enterprise.

The General Notions About Human Understanding...which Are Illustrated By Discoveries In Atomic Physics Are Not In The Nature Of Things Wholly Unfamiliar, Wholly Unheard Of, Or New. Even In Our Own Culture, They Have A History, And In Buddhist And Hindu Thought A More Considerable And Central Place. What We Shall Find Is An Exemplification, An Encouragement, And A Refinement Of Old Wisdom.

The Most Beautiful Philosophical Song Existing In Any Known Tongue.

If We Ask, For Instance, Whether The Position Of The Electron Remains The Same, We Must Say 'no'; If We Ask Whether The Electron's Position Changes With Time, We Must Say 'no'; If We Ask Whether The Electron Is At Rest, We Must Say 'no'; If We Ask Whether It Is In Motion, We Must Say 'no'.

Both The Man Of Science And The Man Of Art Live Always At The Edge Of Mystery, Surrounded By It. Both, As A Measure Of Their Creation, Have Always Had To Do With The Harmonization Of What Is New With What Is Familiar, With The Balance Between Novelty And Synthesis, With The Struggle To Make Partial Order In Total Chaos.... This Cannot Be An Easy Life.