I have to keep going, as there are always people on my track. I have to publish my present work as rapidly as possible in order to keep in the race. The best sprinters in this road of investigation are Becquerel and the Curies.

The more physics you have the less engineering you need.

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

Splitting the atom is like trying to shoot a gnat in the Albert Hall at night and using ten million rounds of ammunition on the off chance of getting it. That should convince you that the atom will always be a sink of energy and never a reservoir of energy.

Should a young scientist working with me come to me after two years of such work and ask me what to do next, I would advise him to get out of science. After two years of work, if a man does not know what to do next, he will never make a real scientist.

Don't let me catch anyone talking about the Universe in my department.

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