I think that intellectuals who end up in hell will have to read page proofs and check indexes there.

Knowing he [Bob Serber] was going to the [first atom bomb] test, I asked him how he planned to deal with the danger of rattlesnakes. He said, 'I'll take along a bottle of whiskey.' … I ended by asking, 'What would you do about those possibilities [of what unknown phenomena might cause a nuclear explosion to propagate in the atmosphere]?' Bob replied, 'Take a second bottle of whiskey.'

Life improves slowly and goes wrong fast, and only catastrophe is clearly visible.

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

The extinction of the human race will come from its inability to EMOTIONALLY comprehend the exponential function.

It is often claimed that knowledge multiplies so rapidly that nobody can follow it. I believe this is incorrect. At least in science it is not true. The main purpose of science is simplicity and as we understand more things, everything is becoming simpler. This, of course, goes contrary to what everyone accepts.

When you're certain you cannot be fooled, you become easy to fool.