It was almost as incredible as if you fired a 15-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you.

We are rather like children, who must take a watch to pieces to see how it works.

The great object is to find the theory of the matter [of X-rays] before anyone else, for nearly every professor in Europe is now on the warpath.

Gentlemen, now you will see that now you see nothing. And why you see nothing you will see presently.

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)

It was almost as incredible as if you fired a 15-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you.

Never say, "I tried it once and it did not work."