--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Results have not been encouraging. We…" description: "\"“Results have not been encouraging. We seem up against a dilemma built into Nature, much like the Heisenberg situation. There is nearly complete parall..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/487/thomas-pynchon-533_nature_results-have-not-been-encouraging-we-see_2661021.jpg" --- # Results have not been encouraging. We seem up against a… ![“Results have not been encouraging. We seem up against a dilemma built into Nature, much like the Heisenberg situation. There is nearly complete parallelism between analgesia and addiction. The more pain it takes away, the more we desire it. It appears we can’t have one property without the other…” quote by Thomas Pynchon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/487/thomas-pynchon-533_nature_results-have-not-been-encouraging-we-see_2661021.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/487/thomas-pynchon-533_nature_results-have-not-been-encouraging-we-see_2661021.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/487/thomas-pynchon-533_nature_results-have-not-been-encouraging-we-see_2661021.jpg) > ““Results have not been encouraging. We seem up against a dilemma built into Nature, much like the Heisenberg situation. There is nearly complete parallelism between analgesia and addiction. The more pain it takes away, the more we desire it. It appears we can’t have one property without the other, any more than a particle physicist can specify position without suffering an uncertainty as to the particle’s velocity—”” [Thomas Pynchon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-pynchon/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The quote highlights the inherent trade‑off between pain relief and addiction, likening it to quantum uncertainty where gaining one property loses another. **In simple terms:** Pain relief often brings addiction risk. Key Takeaway Balance pain management with addiction vigilance. Themes pain addiction science ethics Mood concerned thoughtful Type analytical cautionary When to use this quote - clinical practice - policy making - patient counseling Key Concepts Neuroscience philosophy quantum analogy Questions to Reflect On - How can we design analgesics that minimize addiction? - What ethical limits should guide pain treatment? A Different Perspective Research may not fully resolve the paradox. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Addiction Pain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/addiction-pain-2428460/) [Analgesia Addiction](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/analgesia-addiction-2428458/) [Nature](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nature/) [Pain Takes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/pain-takes-2428459/) [Parallelism Analgesia](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/parallelism-analgesia-2428457/) [Suffering Uncertainty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/suffering-uncertainty-337057/) ## Related quotes > [This is a dark time, filled with suffering and uncertainty. 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It turns out that the same part of the brain that experiences the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gabor-mat/opiates-don-t-only-relieve-physical-pain-they-also-relieve-emotional/) [Gabor Maté](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gabor-mat/) > [Not why the addiction, but why the pain.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gabor-mat/not-why-the-addiction-but-why-the-pain/) [Gabor Mate](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gabor-mat/) > [“The question is never “Why the addiction?” but “Why the pain?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gabor-mat/the-question-is-never-why-the-addiction-but-why-the-pain/) [Gabor Maté](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gabor-mat/) > [I spend a lot of time unpacking the pain surrounding my addiction - both my own and the pain I caused other people.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/caroline-calloway/i-spend-a-lot-of-time-unpacking-the-pain-surrounding-my-addiction/) [Caroline Calloway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/caroline-calloway/) > [There is no human nature, since there is no god to conceive it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-paul-sartre/there-is-no-human-nature-since-there-is-no-god-to-conceive-it/) [Jean-Paul Sartre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-paul-sartre/) > [Borrow trouble for yourself, if that's your nature, but don't lend it to your neighbours.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rudyard-kipling/borrow-trouble-for-yourself-if-that-s-your-nature-but-don-t-lend-it/) [Rudyard Kipling](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rudyard-kipling/) > [Put on my J's and dance the whole night away Im naughty by nature like Im hip-hop hooray With my hands in the sky,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/put-on-my-j-s-and-dance-the-whole-night-away-im-naughty-by-nature/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“THIS tale of my sore-troubled life I write,    To thank the God of nature, who conveyed    My soul to me, and with such care…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/this-tale-of-my-sore-troubled-life-i-write-to-thank-the-god-of-nature/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Remember that your natural state is joy.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wayne-dyer/remember-that-your-natural-state-is-joy/) [Wayne Dyer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wayne-dyer/) > [It is indeed a surprising and fortunate fact that nature can be expressed by relatively low-order mathematical functions.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rudolf-carnap/it-is-indeed-a-surprising-and-fortunate-fact-that-nature-can-be/) [Rudolf Carnap](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rudolf-carnap/) ## More by Thomas Pynchon > [“How strange tonight, this city. As if something trembled below its surface, waiting to burst through.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-pynchon/how-strange-tonight-this-city-as-if-something-trembled-below-its/) [Thomas Pynchon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-pynchon/) > [“It was one of those great iron afternoons in London: the yellow sun being teased apart by a thoasand chimneys breathing, fawning upward without…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-pynchon/it-was-one-of-those-great-iron-afternoons-in-london-the-yellow-sun/) [Thomas Pynchon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-pynchon/) > [“Surely for as long as there have been nights as bad as this one---something to raise the possibility of another night that could actually,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-pynchon/surely-for-as-long-as-there-have-been-nights-as-bad-as-this-one/) [Thomas Pynchon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-pynchon/) > [“Death glided by, shadowless, among the empties on the grass.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-pynchon/death-glided-by-shadowless-among-the-empties-on-the-grass/) [Thomas Pynchon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-pynchon/) > [“People read what news they wanted to and each accordingly built his own rathouse of history's rags and straws.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-pynchon/people-read-what-news-they-wanted-to-and-each-accordingly-built-his/) [Thomas Pynchon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-pynchon/) > [“Out of that night and day of unconditional wrath, folks would've expected to see any city, if it survived, all newly reborn, purified by…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-pynchon/out-of-that-night-and-day-of-unconditional-wrath-folks-would-ve/) [Thomas Pynchon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-pynchon/) > [“As spread thighs are to the libertine...so was the letter V to young Stencil.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-pynchon/as-spread-thighs-are-to-the-libertine-so-was-the-letter-v-to-young/) [Thomas Pynchon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-pynchon/) > [“Oedipa wondered whether, at the end of this (if it were supposed to end), she too might not be left with only compiled memories…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-pynchon/oedipa-wondered-whether-at-the-end-of-this-if-it-were-supposed-to-end/) [Thomas Pynchon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-pynchon/) > [If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-pynchon/if-they-can-get-you-asking-the-wrong-questions-they-don-t-have-to/) [Thomas Pynchon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-pynchon/) > [“remember didn't you sneak away from camp to have a moment alone with What you felt stirring across the land . . . it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-pynchon/remember-didn-t-you-sneak-away-from-camp-to-have-a-moment-alone-with/) [Thomas Pynchon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-pynchon/) > [“Through rain...then through dreaming glass, green with the evening. And herself in chair, old-fashioned, bonneted, looking west over the deck of Earth, inferno red…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-pynchon/through-rain-then-through-dreaming-glass-green-with-the-evening-and/) [Thomas Pynchon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-pynchon/) > [“She knew instinctively: he will be fine as the fraternity boy just out of an Ivy League school who knows he will never stop…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-pynchon/she-knew-instinctively-he-will-be-fine-as-the-fraternity-boy-just-out/) [Thomas Pynchon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-pynchon/) > [“Lovely morning, World War Two.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-pynchon/lovely-morning-world-war-two/) [Thomas Pynchon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-pynchon/) > [“Listen to anything and take it apart again. Spectrum analysis, in my head. 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