Oppenheimer Quotes

I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.

The atomic bomb made the prospect of future war unendurable. It has led us up those last few steps to the mountain pass; and beyond there is different country.

The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true.

The rarest thing in the world is a woman who is pleased with photographs of herself.

The open society, the unrestricted access to knowledge, the unplanned and uninhibited association of men for its furtherance – these are what may make a vast, complex, ever-growing, ever-changing, ever more specialized and expert technological world, nevertheless a world of human community.

There are children playing in the street who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago.

The general notions about human understanding… which are illustrated by discoveries in atomic physics are not in the nature of things wholly unfamiliar, wholly unheard of, or new. Even in our own culture, they have a history, and in Buddhist and Hindu thought a more considerable and central place.

The most important aspect of my personality as far as determining my success goes; has been my questioning conventional wisdom, doubting experts and questioning authority. While that can be painful in your relationships with your parents and teachers, it’s enormously useful in life.

I am sure that in the course of the next few years, the creative men and women in Soviet Russia will introduce novel and important scientific ideas into the world thought. I look upon this, in the true sense, as the most important contribution to the culture of our time.

Oppenheimer Quotes part 2

I believe that every single event in life happens in an opportunity to choose love over fear.

Politics had nothing to do with my carrying out atomic bomb research.

It is very difficult to remain a scientist in Germany.

In some sense, to think is to be programmed.

Without the atomic bomb, there would have been no deterrent to war.

It is my opinion that Einstein’s theory of relativity is simply the scientific method in its boldest form.

It is perfectly obvious that the whole world is going to hell. The only possible chance that it might not is that we do not attempt to prevent it from doing so.

It is no secret that the U.S. welcomes the announcement that the Russian scientists have produced the atomic bomb.

Man is unique because he has the ability to reason, which allows him to apprehend the truth, no matter how unpleasant it may be.

The atomic bomb made the prospect of future war unendurable. It has led us up those last few steps to the mountain pass; and beyond there is different country.

The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true.

The open society, the unrestricted access to knowledge, the unplanned and uninhibited association of men for its furtherance – these are what may make a vast, complex, ever-growing, ever-changing, ever more specialized and expert technological world, nevertheless a world of human community.

The nuclei of atoms in a dense material can be regarded as forming a kind of permanent fluid.

Physics is an attempt conceptually to grasp reality as something that is considered to be independent of its being observed.

To communicate effectively, you cannot treat people as blank faces without identities. You have to speak their language and connect with them emotionally.

We scientists have to develop, individually and as a group, patient attitudes.

When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and argue about what to do with it only after you have had your technical success.

You cannot change the way people think by changing the way they feel. You have to change the way they see and experience the world.

It is my opinion that Einstein’s theory of relativity is simply the scientific method in its boldest form.

Politics had nothing to do with my carrying out atomic bomb research.

It is perfectly obvious that the whole world is going to hell. The only possible chance that it might not is that we do not attempt to prevent it from doing so.

It is no secret that the U.S. welcomes the announcement that the Russian scientists have produced the atomic bomb.

Man is unique because he has the ability to reason, which allows him to apprehend the truth, no matter how unpleasant it may be.

The nuclei of atoms in a dense material can be regarded as forming a kind of permanent fluid.

Physics is an attempt conceptually to grasp reality as something that is considered to be independent of its being observed.

To communicate effectively, you cannot treat people as blank faces without identities. You have to speak their language and connect with them emotionally.

We scientists have to develop, individually and as a group, patient attitudes.

When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and argue about what to do with it only after you have had your technical success.

You cannot change the way people think by changing the way they feel. You have to change the way they see and experience the world.

Things are the way they are because they got that way.

The only way to change is to change.

It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

The atomic bomb made the prospect of future war unendurable.