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Quotes by Physicist
"An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field."
64
"In particular, I established a reasonably accurate energy threshold for permanent displacement of a nucleus from its regular lattice position, substantially smaller than had been previously presumed."
39
"I appeal to my fellow scientists to remember their responsibility to humanity."
38
"Access to the Vedas is the greatest privilege this century may claim over all previous centuries."
38
"Science always has its origin in the adaptation of thought to some definite field of experience."
36
"If the militarily most powerful - and least threatened - states need nuclear weapons for their security, how can one deny such security to countries that are truly insecure? The present nuclear policy is a recipe for proliferation. It is a policy for disaster."
34
"But scientists on both sides of the iron curtain played a very significant role in maintaining the momentum of the nuclear arms race throughout the four decades of the Cold War."
33
"The decision to use the atom bomb on Japanese cities, and the consequent buildup of enormous nuclear arsenals, was made by governments, on the basis of political and military perceptions."
28
"At a time when science plays such a powerful role in the life of society, when the destiny of the whole of mankind may hinge on the results of scientific research, it is incumbent on all scientists to be fully conscious of that role, and conduct themselves accordingly."
27
"It is my opinion that everything must be based on a simple idea. And it is my opinion that this idea, once we have finally discovered it, will be so compelling, so beautiful, that we will say to one another, yes, how could it have been any different."
27
"But heat can also be produced by the friction of liquids, in which there could be no question of changes in structure, or of the liberation of latent heat."
21
"No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical."
19
"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there."
19
"When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb."
18
"The science of today is the technology of tomorrow."
18
"We are told that the possession of nuclear weapons - in some cases even the testing of these weapons - is essential for national security. But this argument can be made by other countries as well."
16
"There's two possible outcomes: if the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery."
16
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool."
15
"Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so that each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry."
14
"Theologians have a great problem because they're seeking to speak about God. Since God is the ground of everything that is, there's a sense in which every human inquiry is grist to the theological mill. Obviously, no theologian can know everything."
14
"What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning."
13
"Someone told me that each equation I included in the book would halve the sales."
13
"Not only does God play dice, but... he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen."
13
"I entered the Physics Department in 1950, receiving a Master's degree in 1953 and a Ph.D. in 1956. It is difficult to convey the sense of excitement that pervaded the Department at that time."
13
"My father was a professor of civil engineering at MIT, and my mother taught high school English."
11
"It is evident that an acquaintance with natural laws means no less than an acquaintance with the mind of God therein expressed."
11
"Each individual fact, taken by itself, can indeed arouse our curiosity or our astonishment, or be useful to us in its practical applications."
10
"An expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes, which can be made, in a very narrow field."
10
"There are children playing in the streets who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago."
10
"As you say, the way string theory requires all these extra dimensions and this comes from certain consistency requirements about how string should behave and so on."
10
"Of course, nobody would deny the importance of human beings for theological thinking, but the time span of history that theologians think about is a few thousand years of human culture rather than the fifteen billion years of the history of the universe."
10
"I do not keep up with the details of particle physics."
10
"Show me a genuine case of platonic friendship, and I shall show you two old or homely faces."
9
"The statesman shears the sheep; the politician skins them."
9
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