The bomb and the entrance of the Russians into the war will certainly have an effect on hastening the victory.

We debated long over the situation for it is a very difficult question and all of us recognize its difficulty.

We face the delicate question of the diplomatic fencing to be done so as to be sure Japan is put into the wrong and makes the first bad move. ... The question was how we should maneuver them [the Japanese] into the position of firing the first shot.

We think it will be shortly afterwards, but it seems a terrible thing to gamble with such big stakes in diplomacy without having your master card in your hand.

But I think the bomb instead constitutes merely a first step in a new control by man over the forces of nature too revolutionary and dangerous to fit into old concepts.

Hope is the mainspring of life.

The only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him.