Since coming to Harwell I have met English people of all kinds, and I have come to see in many of them a deep rooted firmness which enables them to lead a decent way of...

We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

Nationalism is an infantile sickness. It is the measles of the human race.

There is no logical way to the discovery of these elemental laws. There is only the way of intuition, which is helped by a feeling for the order lying behind the appearance.

The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.

I was in the underground until I left Germany.

Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves.

When the solution is simple, God is answering.

God may be subtle, but he isn’t plain mean.

The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

I want to know [God’s] thoughts, the rest are details.

If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.

The grand aim of all science is to cover the greatest number of empirical facts by logical deduction from the smallest number of hypotheses or axioms.

To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.

Since that time I have had continuous contact with the persons who were completely unknown to me, except that I knew they would hand whatever information I gave them to the Russian authorities.

Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today’s events.

The environment is everything that isn’t me.

I used to go away for weeks in a state of confusion.

Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.

I was lucky because on the morning after the burning of the Reichstag I left my home very early to catch a train to Berlin for the conference of our student organization and that is...

I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.

A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem.

No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.

The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.

All these primary impulses, not easily described in words, are the springs of man’s actions.

Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.

It stands to the everlasting credit of science that by acting on the human mind it has overcome man’s insecurity before himself and before nature.

At that time I had complete confidence in Russian policy and I believed that the Western Allies deliberately allowed Russia and Germany to fight each other to the death.

Joy in looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift.

The faster you go, the shorter you are.

One strength of the communist system of the East is that it has some of the character of a religion and inspires the emotions of a religion.

The process of scientific discovery is, in effect, a continual flight from wonder.

I was ready to accept the philosophy that the Party is right and that in the coming struggle you could not permit yourself any doubts after the party had made a decision.

That deep emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.

You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.

I shall never believe that God plays dice with the world.

Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.

Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one’s living at it.

True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.

Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.

At this time I had complete confidence in Russian policy and believed that the Western Allies deliberately allowed Germany and Russia to fight each other to death.

You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.

One may say the eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.

It should be possible to explain the laws of physics to a barmaid.

I went first to France and then to England where I studied and at the same time I tried to make a serious study of the basic Marxist philosophy.

Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.

Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.