Doctor Atomic

"It worked." (said after witnessing the first atomic detonation according to brother, Frank)

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.

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.

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.

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.