Atom Quotes

I think that if the atomic bomb did nothing more, it scared the people to the point where they realized that either they must do something about preventing war or there is a chance that there might be a morning when we would not wake up.

Talk softly please. I have been engaged in experiments which suggest that the atom can be artificially disintegrated. If it is true, it is of far greater importance than a war. (comment when criticised for not attending a meeting in 1919 to discuss new anti-submarine defense systems.)

Molecule, n.: The ultimate, indivisible unit of matter. It is distinguished from the corpuscle, also the ultimate, indivisible unit of matter, by a closer resemblance to the atom, also the ultimate, indivisible unit of matter… The ion differs from the molecule, the corpuscle and the atom in that it is an ion.

Once upon a time I was riding in an automobile with a radio and a most objectionable and rich young man and my pregnant wife when the announcement came of the first atomic bomb. The young man, who would have been objectionable even if not rich, said “It’s impossible. You can’t split the atom.” My […]

Three great scientific theories of the structure of the universe are the molecular, the corpuscular and the atomic. A fourth affirms, with Haeckel, the condensation or precipitation of matter from ether – whose existence is proved by the condensation or precipitation… A fifth theory is held by idiots, but it is doubtful if they know […]

Sometimes I don’t want to see the puppeteers, sometimes I just want to see the magic therein, and sometimes I just want to pry open the atoms and know why they spin.

A weapon of an unparalleled power is being created which will completely change all future conditions of warfare. Unless some agreement about the control of the use of the new active materials can be obtained in due time, any temporary advantage, however great, may be outweighed by a perpetual menace to human security. An initiative, […]

That the universe was formed by a fortuitous concourse of atoms, I will no more believe than that the accidental jumbling of the alphabet would fall into a most ingenious treatise of philosophy.

When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry.

Even if the Japs are savages, ruthless, merciless, and fanatic, we as the leader of the world for the common welfare cannot drop that terrible bomb on the old capital or the new. (written in his diary 25th July 1945, just before he gave the OK for bombing Hiroshima rather than Tokyo or Kyoto)