Quotes from The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism

Fritjof Capra ·  366 pages

Rating: (14.6K votes)


“Quantum theory thus reveals a basic oneness of the universe. It shows that we cannot decompose the world into independently existing smallest units. As we penetrate into matter, nature does not show us any isolated "building blocks," but rather appears as a complicated web of relations between the various parts of the whole. These relations always include the observer in an essential way. The human observer constitute the final link in the chain of observational processes, and the properties of any atomic object can be understood only in terms of the object's interaction with the observer.”
― Fritjof Capra, quote from The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism


“Subatomic particles do not exist but rather show 'tendencies to exist', and atomic events do not occur with certainty at definite times and in definite ways, but rather show 'tendencies to occur'.”
― Fritjof Capra, quote from The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism


“In the words of Heisenberg, “What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.”
― Fritjof Capra, quote from The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism


“The complexity and efficiency of the physicist’s technical apparatus is matched, if not surpassed, by that of the mystic’s consciousness—both physical and spiritual—in deep meditation.”
― Fritjof Capra, quote from The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism


“The natural world, on the other hand, is one of infinite varieties and complexities, a multidimensional world which contains no straight lines or completely regular shapes, where things do not happen in sequences, but all together; a world where—as modern physics tells us—even empty space is curved.”
― Fritjof Capra, quote from The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism



“In the words of a Zen poem, At dusk the cock announces dawn; At midnight, the bright sun.”
― Fritjof Capra, quote from The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism


“The parallels to modern physics [with mysticism] appear not only in the Vedas of Hinduism, in the I Ching, or in the Buddhist sutras, but also in the fragments of Heraclitus, in the Sufism of Ibn Arabi, or in the teachings of the Yaqui sorcerer Don Juan.”
― Fritjof Capra, quote from The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism


About the author

Fritjof Capra
Born place: in Vienna, Austria
Born date February 1, 1939
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