The laboratory routine, which involves a great deal of measurement, filing, and tabulation, is either my lifeline or my chief handicap, I hardly know which.

I was lucky because logarithmic plots are a device of the devil.

The rose does not bloom without thorns. True, but would that the thorns did not outlive the rose.

It is a common remark that men talk most who think least; just as frogs cease their quacking when a light is brought to the water-side.

Remembrance is the only paradise out of which we cannot be driven away.

I have a sense of humor; but over the years that sense has developed one blind spot. I can no longer laugh at ignorance or stupidity. Those are our chief enemies, and it is dangerous to make fun of them.

Most loss of life and property has been due to the collapse of antiquated and unsafe structures, mostly of brick and other masonry. ... There is progress of California toward building new construction according to earthquake-resistant design. We would have less reason to ask for earthquake prediction if this was universal.