Es gibt keinen Gott und Dirac ist sein Prophet.
A remark made during the Fifth Solvay International Conference (October 1927), after a discussion of the religious views of various physicists, at which all the participants laughed, including Dirac, as quoted in Teil und das Ganze (1969), by Werner Heisenberg, p. 119; it is an ironic play on the Muslim statement of faith, the Shahada, often translated: "There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is His Prophet."
Variant translations and paraphrases:
Well, our friend Dirac, too, has a religion, and its guiding principle is "God does not exist and Dirac is His prophet."
As quoted in the authorized translation, Physics and Beyond : Encounters and Conversations (1971) by Werner Heisenberg, p. 87
Yes, yes, our friend Dirac has a religion, and its creed runs: "There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet."
As quoted in Jesus, Son of Man (1977) by Rudolf Augstein, p. 325
Our friend Dirac has a religion; and the main tenet of that religion is: There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet.
As quoted in Haphazard Reality : Half a Century of Science (1983), by Hendrik Brugt Gerhard Casimir, p. 151
Yes, our friend Dirac has a religion, and the basic postulate of this religion is: "There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet."
As quoted in Dirac : A Scientific Biography (1990) by Helge Kragh, p. 256
Well, well, our friend Dirac has a religion, and its guiding principle is: "There is no God, and Dirac is His prophet.
As quoted in God's Laughter : Man and His Cosmos (1992) by Gerhard Staguhn, p. 159
If I understand Dirac correctly, his meaning is this: there is no God, and Dirac is his Prophet.
