Quotes by J. Robert Oppenheimer

About J. Robert Oppenheimer:

Julius Robert Oppenheimer is among those who are often called the "father of the atomic bomb" for their role in the Manhattan Project, the World War II project that developed the first nuclear weapons. The first atomic bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945, in the Trinity test in New Mexico; Oppenheimer remarked later that it brought to mind words from the Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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 , who presided, thanked him for his efforts, and not least for 'leavin...

J. Robert Oppenheimer

The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true.

J. Robert Oppenheimer

In some sort of crude sense, which no vulgarity, no humor, no overstatement can quite extinguish, the physicists have known sin; and this is a knowledge which they cannot lose.

J. Robert Oppenheimer

I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.

J. Robert Oppenheimer

The atomic bomb made the prospect of future war unendurable. It has led us up those last few steps to the mountain pass; and beyond there is a different country.

J. Robert Oppenheimer

No man should escape our universities without knowing how little he knows.

J. Robert Oppenheimer

There are children playing in the streets who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago.

J. Robert Oppenheimer

Any man whose errors take ten years to correct is quite a man.

J. Robert Oppenheimer

Access to the Vedas is the greatest privilege this century may claim over all previous centuries.

J. Robert Oppenheimer

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

J. Robert Oppenheimer

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

J. Robert Oppenheimer

Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds. (quoting the Bhagavad-Gita after witnessing the first Nuclear explosion.)

J. Robert Oppenheimer

[ ] It was a heroic time. It was not the doing of any one man; it involved the collaboration of scores of scientists from many different lands. But from the first to last the deeply creative, subtle and critical spirit of guided, restrained, deepened...

J. Robert Oppenheimer

Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.

J. Robert Oppenheimer

There are no secrets about the world of nature. There are secrets about the thoughts and intentions of men.

J. Robert Oppenheimer

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.

J. Robert Oppenheimer

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 ...

J. Robert Oppenheimer

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

J. Robert Oppenheimer

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.

J. Robert Oppenheimer

Author Bio

  • NameJ. Robert Oppenheimer
  • DescriptionAmerican theoretical physicist and professor of physics
  • AliasesRobert Oppenheimer; Julius Robert Oppenheimer
  • BornApril 22, 1904
  • DiedFebruary 18, 1967
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionNuclear Scientist; Engineer; Theoretical Physicist; Physicist; Scientist
  • AwardsEnrico Fermi Award; Knight Of The Legion Of Honour; Medal For Merit