If anyone wants a hole in the ground, nuclear explosives can make big holes

[Chemistry] laboratory work was my first challenge. ... I still carry the scars of my first discovery-that test-tubes are fragile.

Two paradoxes are better than one they may even suggest a solution.

No endeavor that is worthwhile is simple in prospect; if it is right, it will be simple in retrospect.

Today, nothing is unusual about a scientific discovery's being followed soon after by a technical application: The discovery of electrons led to electronics; fission led to nuclear energy. But before the 1880's, science played almost no role in the advances of technology. For example, James Watt developed the first efficient steam engine long before science established the equivalence between mechanical heat and energy.

Had we not pursued the hydrogen bomb, there is a very real threat that we would now all be speaking Russian. I have no regrets.

I tried to contribute to the defeat of the Soviets. If I contributed 1%, it is 1% of something enormous.