Straight from today’s Quotle — here’s who really said it, and the story behind it. Play again

Who really said it

A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it

Written by Max Planck 1858–1947 · German theoretical physicist, founder of quantum theory
Verified In copyright

Planck wrote it in German in his 1946 memoir essay “Persönliche Erinnerungen aus alten Zeiten” and reused it in his Wissenschaftliche Selbstbiographie (1948). This exact English is Frank Gaynor’s translation in Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers (1949), pp. 33–34, as Quote Investigator confirms ↗.

Last verified 3 Nov 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Verified quote & credit

“A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it” Max Planck, Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers, trans. Frank Gaynor (1949), pp. 33–34

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Philosophical Library (publisher) / estate of translator Frank Gaynor). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Max Planck — German theoretical physicist. Theme: "A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source

Work
Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers
Translation
Frank Gaynor, 1949 (Philosophical Library, New York), pp. 33–34
German original
“Persönliche Erinnerungen aus alten Zeiten,” Die Naturwissenschaften 33, no. 8 (30 Oct. 1946), p. 235
Reprinted
Wissenschaftliche Selbstbiographie (J. A. Barth, Leipzig, 1948), p. 22

A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.

Planck’s German, as Wikiquote gives it ↗: “Eine neue wissenschaftliche Wahrheit pflegt sich nicht in der Weise durchzusetzen, daß ihre Gegner überzeugt werden und sich als belehrt erklären, sondern vielmehr dadurch, daß ihre Gegner allmählich aussterben und daß die heranwachsende Generation von vornherein mit der Wahrheit vertraut gemacht ist.” Wikiquote also prints a different English rendering, “revised by Eric Weinberger.” So the popular wording is one translation, not the only one.

Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers (1949) at the Internet Archive

How the line reached us

  • 1946 — Planck publishes the German sentence in “Persönliche Erinnerungen aus alten Zeiten,” Die Naturwissenschaften, 30 October 1946 (Quote Investigator ↗).
  • 1948 — The passage appears in his Wissenschaftliche Selbstbiographie (Barth, Leipzig), p. 22 (Wikiquote ↗).
  • 1949 — Frank Gaynor’s English translation, Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers, is published by Philosophical Library in New York (Internet Archive record ↗). It contains the popular wording on pp. 33–34.
  • 1962 onward — Thomas S. Kuhn quotes the Gaynor sentence in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. In 1975 Paul Samuelson boils it down to “science makes progress funeral by funeral” (Quote Investigator ↗).
In copyright

The English shown is Frank Gaynor’s translation, first published in 1949 by Philosophical Library. That is after the 1931 cutoff, so we treat it as in copyright in the US. Planck’s German original first appeared in 1946, so it is not a pre-1931 public-domain text either.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

The quote is real, but its short forms are not Planck’s

Planck really wrote this long sentence. It is the shortened, punchier versions credited to him that he never wrote.

“Science advances one funeral at a time” Paraphrase

Wikiquote ↗ lists this under “Paraphrased variants” beneath Planck’s passage. It is not in his text.

“Science makes progress funeral by funeral” (Paul A. Samuelson) Later coinage

Quote Investigator ↗ finds the compact “funeral by funeral” form in the economist Paul Samuelson’s writing, starting in Newsweek on 16 June 1975. Samuelson credited the idea to Planck, but the phrasing is Samuelson’s.

“Truth never triumphs — its opponents just die out” Paraphrase

Wikiquote also lists this line, and its German form “Die Wahrheit triumphiert nie, ihre Gegner sterben nur aus,” as paraphrased variants (Wikiquote ↗).

The full sentence is Planck’s own, in Frank Gaynor’s 1949 translation of his Scientific Autobiography, pp. 33–34 (Quote Investigator ↗). The short “funeral” versions came later.

Context

Why it mattered

Planck was writing about his own career, and about how slowly his early ideas won acceptance. The sentence then took on a life of its own. Thomas S. Kuhn cited it in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), and it came to be called “Planck’s principle”: the idea that scientific change follows generational turnover rather than persuasion alone (Wikipedia ↗).

Economists later tested it. Pierre Azoulay, Christian Fons-Rosen and Joshua Graff Zivin’s paper “Does Science Advance One Funeral at a Time?” (American Economic Review, August 2019) found that after star scientists died, their collaborators published less in the field, while newcomers’ activity rose (Wikipedia summary ↗).

Its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Truth Change Mortality

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Origin: Science Makes Progress Funeral by Funeralquoteinvestigator.com

Quote Investigator’s chronology, from Planck’s 1946 German text and the 1949 Gaynor translation to Samuelson’s “funeral by funeral”
Max Planck on Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

The sourced German passage with an alternative English translation, plus the paraphrased variants
Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers (1949)archive.org

Internet Archive catalog record for the Philosophical Library edition (borrowable scan)
Planck’s principleen.wikipedia.org

How the passage became a named principle, with Kuhn and the 2019 AER study
Crossref record: “Persönliche Erinnerungen aus alten Zeiten” (1946)api.crossref.org

DOI metadata for Planck’s 1946 Die Naturwissenschaften essay, vol. 33, no. 8, pp. 230–235

The author

About Max Planck

Max Planck

1858–1947 · German theoretical physicist

Max Planck was the German physicist whose work on black-body radiation founded quantum theory, and he won the Nobel Prize in Physics. Late in life he wrote short memoirs about his career. In them he looked back on how slowly his early ideas on thermodynamics were accepted, and that is where this remark about how new ideas win comes from.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

Max Planck, Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers, trans. Frank Gaynor (New York: Philosophical Library, 1949), 33–34. Originally “Persönliche Erinnerungen aus alten Zeiten,” Die Naturwissenschaften 33, no. 8 (30 October 1946): 235.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it’?” Last verified 3 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/a-new-scientific-truth-does-not-triumph-by-convincing-its/

Something wrong on this page?

Tell us what’s off. A link helps but isn’t required — “this is the wrong person” is a useful report on its own. Nothing here changes the page directly; it goes to our review queue and a human checks it.

Only used to tell you if we act on your report. We never sell or share it.

Copied