It is a profound and necessary truth that the deep things in science are not found because they are useful; they are found because it was possible to find them.

We hunger for nobility: the rare words and acts that harmonize simplicity and truth.

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

We may anticipate a state of affairs in which two Great Powers will each be in a position to put an end to the civilization and life of the other, though not without risking its own. We may be likened to two scorpions in a bottle, each capable of killing the other, but only at the risk of his own life.

But when you come right down to it the reason that we did this job is because it was an organic necessity. If you are a scientist you cannot stop such a thing. If you are a scientist you believe that it is good to find out how the world works; that it is good to find out what the realities are; that it is good to turn over to mankind at large the greatest possible power to control the world and to deal with it according to its lights and values.

To try to be happy is to try to build a machine with no other specification than that it shall run noiselessly.

'It worked.' (said after witnessing the first atomic detonation).