The exceptional brilliance of one of the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics, the Pauli Exclusion Principle is discussed here. While there is no doubt about the importance of the exclusion principle in nature and in the stability of matter, the Pauli principle, however, does not often get the appreciation it should have got because of its sheer magnificence in the field of quantum mechanics. This study tries to change that by discussing four key characteristics related to the principle; proposing the principle even before the development of quantum mechanics, introducing a new quantum number, now called ‘spin’, its importance in the latter developed quantum mechanics, and its implications to the Schrödinger’s wave equation by prohibition of arbitrary permutation symmetry, and at the same time presenting Pauli’s genius and farsightedness in proposing it.
