Pauli turns out to be not only a shrewd mathematician and theoretical physicist but also a humanist with a bent for philosophy and even something of a poet. He was fascinated by the development of Western ideas in the areas of science, philosophy and religion and was also a lover of literature.
—Suzanne Gieser, The Innermost Kernel
#pauli #physics #mathematics #science #philosophy #religion #poetry #literature

German intellectuality has always seemed to me inclined to dogmatism and to non-instinctual one-sidedness.
—Pauli to Goldschmidt, 19 Feb. 1949
#pauli #wolfgangpauli

…Pauli had…a philosophical outlook of his own which marked his attitude to physics…
—Suzanne Gieser, The Innermost Kernel
#pauli #physics

…my influence should consist in what I live, what I believe in and what ideas I more or less directly spread…
—Quoted in Armin Hermann, ‘Paulis Auffassung von der Rolle der Wissenschaft’, Wolfgang Pauli: Das Gewissen der Physik, 16.
#pauli

Pauli recommended what he called an indirect influence, i. e. the influence that proceeds from one’s own personality – how one lives and the ideas which one conveys to those to whom one is closest. … He considered that every individual had to shoulder his own responsibility…
—Suzanne Gieser, The Innermost Kernel
#pauli

A Chinese proverb says: ‘If the right tool is in the hands of the wrong man, the right tool has the wrong effect.’ Therefore one does not put any tool in the hands of the ‘wrong’ man; it will not lead to success. …in a historical crisis such as today’s we are not in a position to make prophecies at all.
—Pauli to Bohr, 3 Oct. 1950
#pauli #bohr

Although Pauli was not directly involved in the manufacture of the atomic bomb he felt that he was responsible for mass murder – responsible because he felt that he moved in criminal circles. Both the USA as a country and physics as a career had become criminal.
—Suzanne Gieser, The Innermost Kernel
#pauli #physics #usa

In the more distant future (say in about 5 years), however, I do see the big danger of an intervention of the military in physics… …it is impossible to imagine a united front of physicists against such tendencies; it is too easy to entice young people with good positions and career prospects. . .
—Pauli to Einstein, 19 Sep. 1946
#pauli to #einstein on #physics in #usa

The stumbling block, to both Pauli and Jung, was that the models of their ‘mentors’ could not cope with the irrational, an element which they associated with the occurrence of the ‘unique’, the ever present creative act of nature, which cannot be grasped within a rational scheme.
—Suzanne Gieser, The Innermost Kernel: Depth Psychology and Quantum Physics. Wolfgang Pauli's Dialogue with C.G. Jung by Suzanne Gieser
#pauli #jung

He [Pauli] wrote in a sophisticated and beautiful German. … Pauli wrote almost all his letters by hand. This says something about his attitude to letter writing as an activity.
—Suzanne Gieser, The Innermost Kernel: Depth Psychology and Quantum Physics. Wolfgang Pauli's Dialogue with C.G. Jung by Suzanne Gieser
#pauli #wolfgangpauli #letters

As always in the recollection of history there is more than one version and more research is needed for us to obtain a fair picture…
—Suzanne Gieser, The Innermost Kernel: Depth Psychology and Quantum Physics. Wolfgang Pauli's Dialogue with C.G. Jung by Suzanne Gieser
#pauli #jung