--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Our mind, by virtue of a certain finite…" description: "\"Our mind, by virtue of a certain finite, limited capability, is by no means capable of putting a question to Nature that permits a continuous series of..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c9e/erwin-schrodinger-8450_answers_our-mind-by-virtue-of-a-certain-finite-l_2761733.jpg" --- # Our mind, by virtue of a certain finite, limited… ![“Our mind, by virtue of a certain finite, limited capability, is by no means capable of putting a question to Nature that permits a continuous series of answers. The observations, the individual results of measurements, are the answers of Nature to our discontinuous questioning.” quote by Erwin Schrodinger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c9e/erwin-schrodinger-8450_answers_our-mind-by-virtue-of-a-certain-finite-l_2761733.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c9e/erwin-schrodinger-8450_answers_our-mind-by-virtue-of-a-certain-finite-l_2761733.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c9e/erwin-schrodinger-8450_answers_our-mind-by-virtue-of-a-certain-finite-l_2761733.jpg) > “Our mind, by virtue of a certain finite, limited capability, is by no means capable of putting a question to Nature that permits a continuous series of answers. The observations, the individual results of measurements, are the answers of Nature to our discontinuous questioning.” [Erwin Schrodinger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erwin-schrodinger/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Human knowledge is limited; we can only ask discrete questions and receive isolated answers from nature. **In simple terms:** We can only ask specific questions and get specific answers. Key Takeaway Accept the limits of inquiry and work within them. Themes knowledge science limitations inquiry Mood thoughtful analytical Type philosophical scientific When to use this quote - research design - philosophical debates - educational curricula - scientific methodology Key Concepts epistemology finite capability discrete questioning Questions to Reflect On - How can we frame better questions to capture more of nature’s complexity? - What are the risks of assuming continuity where none exists? A Different Perspective Continuous questioning may mislead or oversimplify complex phenomena. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Answers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/answers/) [Answers Observations](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/answers-observations-3174532/) [Capability](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/capability/) [Capable](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/capable/) [Certain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/certain/) [Discontinuous Questioning](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/discontinuous-questioning-3174530/) [Finite](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/finite/) [Individual](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/individual/) [Mean](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mean/) [Measurement](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/measurement/) [Mind](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mind/) [Nature](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nature/) [Nature Discontinuous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nature-discontinuous-3174531/) [Observation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/observation/) [Permit](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/permit/) [Psychology](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/psychology/) [Question Nature](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/question-nature-644180/) [Questioning](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/questioning/) [Results](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/results/) [Series](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/series/) [Truth Seeking](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/truth-seeking/) [Virtue](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/virtue/) ## Related quotes > [“...the question as to the nature of force will not have been answered; but our minds, no longer vexed, will cease to ask illegitimate…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/heinrich-hertz/the-question-as-to-the-nature-of-force-will-not-have-been-answered/) [Heinrich Hertz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/heinrich-hertz/) > [After a still winter night I awoke with the impression that some question had been put to me, which I had been endeavoring in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/after-a-still-winter-night-i-awoke-with-the-impression-that-some/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) > [When the hoary old question of nature versus nurture comes around, sides form quickly.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/simon-blackburn/when-the-hoary-old-question-of-nature-versus-nurture-comes-around/) [Simon Blackburn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/simon-blackburn/) > [A careful analysis of the process of observation in atomic physics has shown that the subatomic particles have no meaning as isolated entities, but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erwin-schrodinger/a-careful-analysis-of-the-process-of-observation-in-atomic-physics/) [Erwin Schrodinger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erwin-schrodinger/) > [I belong to those theoreticians who know by direct observation what it means to make a measurement. 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Sullivan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/j-w-n-sullivan/) > [Learning is the measurement of knowledge before and after.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eben-pagan/learning-is-the-measurement-of-knowledge-before-and-after/) [Eben Pagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eben-pagan/) > [Measurement of life should be proportioned rather to the intensity of the experience than to its actual length.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-hardy/measurement-of-life-should-be-proportioned-rather-to-the-intensity-of/) [Thomas Hardy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-hardy/) > [There was but one question he left unasked, and it vibrated between his lines: if gross miscalculations of a person's value could occur on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-lewis/there-was-but-one-question-he-left-unasked-and-it-vibrated-between/) [Michael Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-lewis/) > [Cookery is not chemistry. It is an art. 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Spaces between deaths.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-levithan/each-of-us-has-our-own-unit-of-measurement-our-own-relativity-spaces/) [David Levithan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-levithan/) > [Golf is not, on the whole, a game for realists. By its exactitudes of measurements it invites the attention of perfectionists.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/heywood-hale-broun/golf-is-not-on-the-whole-a-game-for-realists-by-its-exactitudes-of/) [Heywood Hale Broun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/heywood-hale-broun/) > [True works of art contain their own theory and give us the measurement according to which we should judge them.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/true-works-of-art-contain-their-own-theory-and-give-us-the/) [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/) ## More by Erwin Schrodinger > [Thus you can throw yourself flat on the ground, stretched out upon mother earth, with the certain conviction that you are one with her…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erwin-schrodinger/thus-you-can-throw-yourself-flat-on-the-ground-stretched-out-upon/) [Erwin Schrodinger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erwin-schrodinger/) > [Nature has no reverence towards life. Nature treats life as though it were the most valueless thing in the world… Nature does not act…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erwin-schrodinger/nature-has-no-reverence-towards-life-nature-treats-life-as-though-it/) [Erwin Schrodinger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erwin-schrodinger/) > [I know not whence I came, nor whither I go, nor who I am.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erwin-schrodinger/i-know-not-whence-i-came-nor-whither-i-go-nor-who-i-am/) [Erwin Schrodinger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erwin-schrodinger/) > [If all this damned quantum jumping were really here to stay, I should be sorry, I should be sorry I ever got involved with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erwin-schrodinger/if-all-this-damned-quantum-jumping-were-really-here-to-stay-i-should/) [Erwin Schrodinger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erwin-schrodinger/) > [In an honest search for knowledge, you quite often have to abide by ignorance for an indefinite period.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erwin-schrodinger/in-an-honest-search-for-knowledge-you-quite-often-have-to-abide-by/) [Erwin Schrodinger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erwin-schrodinger/) > [Whence come I and whither go I? That is the great unfathomable question. Science has no answer to it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erwin-schrodinger/whence-come-i-and-whither-go-i-that-is-the-great-unfathomable/) [Erwin Schrodinger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erwin-schrodinger/) > [Science cannot tell us a word about why music delights us, of why and how an old song can move us to tears.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erwin-schrodinger/science-cannot-tell-us-a-word-about-why-music-delights-us-of-why-and/) [Erwin Schrodinger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erwin-schrodinger/) > [I am very astonished that the scientific picture of the real world around me is very deficient. It gives a lot of factual information,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erwin-schrodinger/i-am-very-astonished-that-the-scientific-picture-of-the-real-world/) [Erwin Schrodinger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erwin-schrodinger/) > [If a man never contradicts himself, the reason must be that he virtually never says anything at all.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erwin-schrodinger/if-a-man-never-contradicts-himself-the-reason-must-be-that-he/) [Erwin Schrodinger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erwin-schrodinger/) > [“I am no friend of probability theory, I have hated it from the first moment when our dear friend Max Born gave it birth.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erwin-schrodinger/i-am-no-friend-of-probability-theory-i-have-hated-it-from-the-first/) [Erwin Schrödinger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erwin-schrodinger/) > [Our perceiving self is nowhere to be found in the world-picture, because it itself is the world-picture.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erwin-schrodinger/our-perceiving-self-is-nowhere-to-be-found-in-the-world-picture/) [Erwin Schrodinger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erwin-schrodinger/) > [Vedanta teaches that consciousness is singular, all happenings are played out in one universal consciousness and there is no multiplicity of selves.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erwin-schrodinger/vedanta-teaches-that-consciousness-is-singular-all-happenings-are/) [Erwin Schrodinger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erwin-schrodinger/) > [An animal that embarks on forming states without greatly restricting egoism will perish.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erwin-schrodinger/an-animal-that-embarks-on-forming-states-without-greatly-restricting/) [Erwin Schrodinger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erwin-schrodinger/) > [Matter and energy seem granular in structure, and so does “life”, but not so mind.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erwin-schrodinger/matter-and-energy-seem-granular-in-structure-and-so-does-life-but-not/) [Erwin Schrodinger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erwin-schrodinger/) > [“When in the puppet-show of dreams we hold in hand the strings of quite a number of actors, controlling their actions and their speech,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erwin-schrodinger/when-in-the-puppet-show-of-dreams-we-hold-in-hand-the-strings-of/) [Erwin Schrödinger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erwin-schrodinger/) [Explore all 79 Erwin Schrodinger quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erwin-schrodinger/) ## More Answers quotes > [The one thing that I keep learning over and over again is that I don't know nothing. I mean, that's my life lesson.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dwayne-johnson/the-one-thing-that-i-keep-learning-over-and-over-again-is-that-i-don/) [Dwayne Johnson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dwayne-johnson/) > [Sometimes a question can hurt more than an answer.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-dessen/sometimes-a-question-can-hurt-more-than-an-answer/) [Sarah Dessen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-dessen/) > [You feed yourself. Make sure you have all the information, whether it's aesthetic, scientific, mathematical, I don't care what it is. Then you walk…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ray-bradbury/you-feed-yourself-make-sure-you-have-all-the-information-whether-it-s/) [Ray Bradbury](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ray-bradbury/) > [I have long felt that the way to keep children out of trouble is to keep them interested in things. 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