Humorous Sayings

If atomic bombs are to be added as new weapons to the arsenals of a warring world, or to the arsenals of nations preparing for war, then the time will come when mankind will curse the names of Los Alamos and of Hiroshima.

In the spring of 1929, I returned to the United States. I was homesick for this country. I had learned in my student days a great deal about the new physics. I wanted to pursue this myself, to explain it, and to foster its cultivation.

In the spring of 1936, I was introduced by friends to Jean Tatlock. In the autumn, I began to court her. We were at least twice close enough to marriage to think of ourselves as engaged.

The most beautiful philosophical song existing in any known tongue.

Pragmatism is an intellectually safe but ultimately sterile philosophy.

Never underestimate the joy people derive from hearing something they already know.

Oh, anything with a probability of less than 20%.

I remember my friend Johnny von Neumann used to say, 'with four parameters I can fit an elephant and with five I can make him wiggle his trunk.'

It does not say in the Bible that all laws of nature are expressible linearly!

Where is everybody? Humans could theoretically colonize the galaxy in a million years or so, and if they could, astronauts from older civilizations could do the same. So why haven't They come to Earth?

When asked what characteristics Nobel prize winning physicists had in common I cannot think of a single one not even intelligence.

Never make anything more accurate than it needs to be.

Young man, if I could remember the names of these [muons, pions, etc.] particles, I would have been a botanist.

One might be led to question whether the scientists acted wisely in presenting the statesmen of the world with this appalling problem. Actually there was no choice. Once basic knowledge is acquired, any attempt at preventing its fruition would be as …

Ignorance is never better than knowledge.

I have something that I call my Golden Rule. It goes something like this: 'Do unto others twenty-five percent better than you expect them to do unto you.' … The twenty-five percent is for error.

Like thousands of other boys, I had a little chemical laboratory in our cellar and think that some of our friends thought me a bit crazy.

Well David, I have a lot of ideas and throw away the bad ones.

I was able to solve this problem because I don't have a computer. I know what I am doing every step, and the steps go slowly enough that I can think.

Just one living cell in the human body is, more complex than New York City.