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'.

In a free world, if it is to remain free, we must maintain, with our lives if need be, but surely by our lives, the opportunity for a man to learn anything

Taken as a story of human achievement, and human blindness, the discoveries in the sciences are among the great epics.

A pragmatist is concerned with results, not reality.

When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.

The best way to send information is to wrap it up in a person.

In the material sciences these are and have been, and are most surely likely to continue to be heroic days.