I've just finished reading some of my early papers, and you know, when I'd finished I said to myself, 'Rutherford, my boy, you used to be a damned clever fellow.' (1911)

I've just finished reading some of my early papers, and you know, when I'd finished I said to myself, 'Rutherford, my boy, you used to be a damned clever fellow.' (1911)

All of physics is either impossible or trivial. It is impossible until you understand it, and then it becomes trivial.

Gentlemen, we have run out of money. It is time to start thinking.

From the results so far obtained it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the long-range atoms arising from collision of alpha particles with nitrogen are not nitrogen atoms but probably atoms of hydrogen, or atoms of mass 2. If this be the case, we must conclude that the nitrogen atom is disintegrated under the intense forces developed in a close collision with a swift alpha particle, and that the hydrogen atom which is liberated formed a constituent part of the nitrogen nucleus.

If, as I have reason to believe, I have disintegrated the nucleus of the atom, this is of greater significance than the war.

All scientific men will be delighted to extend their warmest congratulations to Tesla and to express their appreciation of his great contributions to science.