We must be clear that when it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry.
In plain words
Atoms are so strange that talking about them is like writing a poem.
Where these words come from
- 55% sureLots of sources credit Niels Bohr with this, and they agree with each other. The book or the speech it first came from hasn't turned up yet.
- Reported from Bohr's 1920 meeting with Heisenberg (Discussions about Language, 1933, via later secondary works) — recollection chain, not Bohr's own writing
- 1920 · talking with Werner Heisenberg about how to describe atoms
