We know that the wages of secrecy are corruption. We know that in secrecy error, undetected, will flourish and subvert.

Both the man of science and the man of action live always at the edge of mystery, surrounded by it.

Sometimes the answer to fear does not lie in trying to explain away the causes, sometimes the answer lies in courage.

Maybe General Groves was right. Maybe we should just banish thinking forever.

Pragmatism is an intellectually safe but ultimately sterile philosophy.

Bertrand Russell had given a talk on the then new quantum mechanics, of whose wonders he was most appreciative. He spoke hard and earnestly in the New Lecture Hall. And when he was done, Professor Whitehead, who presided, thanked him for his efforts, and not least for 'leaving the vast darkness of the subject unobscured'.

We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.