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.
J. Robert OppenheimerSometimes the answer to fear does not lie in trying to explain away the causes, sometimes the answer lies in courage.
J. Robert OppenheimerSubmit an agreement providing for the peaceful absorbtion of a celestial races in such a manner that our culture would remain intact with guarantee that their presence not be revealed." "One must consider the fact that mis-identification of these space craft for a intercontinental missile in a re-entry phase of flight could lead to accidental nuclear war with horrible consequences.
J. Robert OppenheimerIn the material sciences these are and have been, and are most surely likely to continue to be heroic days.
J. Robert OppenheimerI can't think that it would be terrible of me to say - and it is occasionally true - that I need physics more than friends.
J. Robert OppenheimerBoth the man of science and the man of action live always at the edge of mystery, surrounded by it.
J. Robert OppenheimerThe 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.
J. Robert Oppenheimer