The general notions about human understanding...which are illustrated by discoveries in atomic physics are not in the nature of things wholly unfamiliar, wholly unheard of, or new. Even in our own culture, they have a history, and in Buddhist and Hindu thought a more considerable and central place. What we shall find is an exemplification, an encouragement, and a refinement of old wisdom.

The history of science is rich in example of the fruitfulness of bringing two sets of techniques, two sets of ideas, developed in separate contexts for the pursuit of new truth, into touch with one another.

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

The general notions about human understanding...which are illustrated by discoveries in atomic physics are not in the nature of things wholly unfamiliar, wholly unheard of, or new. Even in our own culture, they have a history, and in Buddhist and Hindu thought a more considerable and central place. What we shall find is an exemplification, an encouragement, and a refinement of old wisdom.

The physicists have known sin; and this is a knowledge which they cannot lose.

You can certainly destroy enough of humanity so that only the greatest act of faith can persuade you that what's left will be human.

The greatest of the changes that science has brought is the acuity of change; the greatest novelty the extent of novelty.