In physics, almost everything is already discovered, and all that remains is to fill a few unimportant holes
Not Max Planck — a paraphrase of Philipp von Jolly’s advicePhilipp von Jolly (as recalled by Max Planck)1809–1884 · German experimental physicist, Planck's teacher at Munich
Planck was the student, not the speaker. In a guest lecture at Munich on 1 December 1924 (published 1925 as Vom Relativen zum Absoluten), he recalled that his teacher Jolly called physics a “nearly fully mature science.” Quote Investigator ↗ finds that the popular one-line version is a later paraphrase by an unknown writer, not something Jolly or Planck said.
“In physics, almost everything is already discovered, and all that remains is to fill a few unimportant holes” Often credited to Max Planck, but it is a modern paraphrase of advice his teacher Philipp von Jolly gave him, as Planck recalled in a Munich lecture on 1 December 1924 (Vom Relativen zum Absoluten, 1925). Source: Quotle.info
⚠ The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Max Planck. Use the credit shown above instead.
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Provenance
What Planck actually wrote
Work
Vom Relativen zum Absoluten
Delivered
Guest lecture, University of Munich, 1 December 1924
Published
S. Hirzel, Leipzig, 1925 (quote page 3, per Quote Investigator); reprinted in Vorträge und Erinnerungen (Hirzel, 1949)
Translation
No standard English version. Renderings include F. Katscher (Scientific American, 1996), J. D. Wells (2016) and Quote Investigator (2026). The popular one-line wording is a paraphrase, not a translation.
Als ich meine physikalischen Studien begann und bei meinem ehrwürdigen Lehrer Philipp v Jolly wegen der Bedingungen und Aussichten meines Studiums mir Rat erholte, schilderte mir dieser die Physik als eine hochentwickelte, nahezu voll ausgereifte Wissenschaft, die nunmehr, nachdem ihr durch die Entdeckung des Prinzips der Erhaltung der Energie gewissermaßen die Krone aufgesetzt sei, wohl bald ihre endgültige stabile Form angenommen haben würde. Wohl gäbe es vielleicht in einem oder dem anderen Winkel noch ein Stäubchen oder ein Bläschen zu prüfen und einzuordnen, aber das System als Ganzes stehe ziemlich gesichert da…
Planck, 1924 lecture (German original)
In Quote Investigator’s English rendering, Jolly called physics “a highly developed, nearly fully mature science,” in which “a speck of dust or a bubble here or there” might remain to be examined. The passage never mentions “filling holes”; that phrase comes from later retellings.
1996–2001. A condensed English translation of the passage appears in a Scientific American letter (1996), and Neil deGrasse Tyson reuses it in Natural History (2001), according to Quote Investigator ↗.
2007–2011. Quote Investigator finds the short paraphrase in popular-science books: Ian Stewart (2007, “fill a few holes”) and James D. Stein’s Cosmic Numbers (2011, “fill a few unimportant holes”). Wikiquote ↗ lists Stein’s passage under “Quotes about Planck.”
2026.Quote Investigator ↗ concludes the short quotation was not spoken by Jolly or Planck. It is a condensed paraphrase of the 1924 passage.
The popular English sentence is an anonymous modern paraphrase with no identifiable source, so we assert no copyright status for it. Planck’s German lecture was first published in 1925 (S. Hirzel, Leipzig). The English renderings of that passage cited by Quote Investigator (1996, 2016, 2026) are modern translations with their own rights.
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
Who gets the credit, and why
This line is usually printed under Planck’s name as if it were his own view. In fact he was the young student receiving the advice, and the words in circulation belong to no one in the story.
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Popular creditMax Planck Wrong speaker
Planck recounted the advice; he did not give it, and he never wrote this sentence. His 1924 lecture puts the view in Jolly’s mouth and in different words (“a speck of dust or a bubble”), according to Quote Investigator ↗.
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The ideaPhilipp von Jolly Idea, not wording
The pessimistic view is Jolly’s, but we know it only through Planck’s memory decades later. Quote Investigator says the one-line version “was not spoken by Philipp von Jolly” and is a paraphrase of Planck’s passage (QI ↗). Sources disagree on the year: Quote Investigator places the conversation between 1874 and 1879, while Wikipedia ↗ gives 1878.
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Where the wording circulatesIan Stewart (2007) and James D. Stein (2011) Retellings
Quote Investigator finds the condensed “fill a few holes” phrasing in these popular-science books. Stein’s exact “few unimportant holes” version is reproduced on Wikiquote ↗ as a quote about Planck, not by him.
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A sibling lineLord Kelvin Also misattributed
A similar end-of-physics line, “There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now,” is pinned on Kelvin. Wikiquote ↗ lists it as Misattributed and says there is no evidence Kelvin said it.
✓The real source is Planck’s own recollection of Jolly’s advice in his 1 December 1924 Munich lecture. The sentence in circulation is a later paraphrase by an unknown writer (Quote Investigator ↗).
Context
Why the story endures
The anecdote is popular because of its irony. The student told that physics was nearly finished went on to introduce the quantum of action, which helped overturn classical physics. Planck himself framed the memory with care: in his account, Jolly expected physics to settle into a “final, stable form,” like geometry.
The retold version has picked up details over time. James D. Stein’s 2011 retelling, quoted on Wikiquote ↗, adds that Planck answered he did not want to discover new things, only to understand what was already known. The crisp one-liner is a modern condensation, and Planck’s lecture contains no such sentence.
A speck of dust or a bubble here or there to be examined
What about the date?
Sources disagree. Quote Investigator ↗ says the conversation took place between 1874, when Planck began his studies, and 1879, when he defended his thesis. Wikipedia’s Jolly article ↗ and James D. Wells’s 2016 paper give 1878. The lecture itself says only that it happened when Planck began his physics studies.
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Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
1809–1884 · German experimental physicist, Planck's teacher at Munich
Philipp von Jolly was an experimental physicist at the University of Munich and one of Max Planck’s teachers. Planck ran the only experiments of his career under Jolly’s supervision. In 1924 Planck recalled that when he asked Jolly about studying physics, Jolly said the field was close to its final, stable form. Planck went on to found quantum theory, so the advice is now remembered as a famously wrong forecast.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Underlying source
Planck, Max. Vom Relativen zum Absoluten: Gastvorlesung, gehalten in der Universität München am 1. Dezember 1924. Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1925, 3 (Jolly’s advice as Planck recalled it; the popular English sentence is a later paraphrase). See Quote Investigator, “Quote Origin: In Physics, Almost Everything Is Already Discovered, and All That Remains Is to Fill a Few Unimportant Holes,” May 20, 2026.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘In physics, almost everything is already discovered, and all that remains is to fill a few unimportant holes’?” Last verified 2 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/in-physics-almost-everything-is-already-discovered-and-all/