Ernest Rutherford Quotes About Science

Quotes about: Science

• All of physics is either impossible or trivial. It is impossible until you understand it, and then it becomes trivial.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Science, Engineering, Understanding

• All science is either physics or stamp collecting.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Witty, Humorous, Science

  Quoted in J. B. Birks, Rutherford at Manchester (1962)

• I've just finished reading some of my early papers, and you know, when I'd finished I said to myself, 'Rutherford, my boy, you used to be a damned clever fellow.' (1911)

  Ernest Rutherford

  Clever, Reading, Science

• If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Math, Science, Needs

  Quoted in N.T. Bailey's The Mathematical Approach to Biology and Medicine Chapter 2 (p. 23)

• I am a great believer in the simplicity of things and as you probably know I am inclined to hang on to broad & simple ideas like grim death until evidence is too strong for my tenacity.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Strong, Science, Simple

• The only possible conclusion the social sciences can draw is: some do, some don't.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Witty, Humorous, Science

• We haven't got the money, so we've got to think.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Business, Science, Thinking

  R. V. Jones in Bulletin of the Institute of Physics (1962) vol. 13, p. 102

• Now I know what the atom looks like.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Science, Atoms, Looks

  "Rutherford, Simple Genius". Book by David Wilson, 1983.

• Don't let me catch anyone talking about the Universe in my department.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Science, Talking, Stamp Collecting

  "Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists". Book by John Daintith, Third Edition, p. 662, 2008.

• The year 1896 ... marked the beginning of what has been aptly termed the heroic age of Physical Science. Never before in the history of physics has there been witnessed such a period of intense activity when discoveries of fundamental importance have followed one another with such bewildering rapidity.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Hero, Science, Years

• Gentlemen, now you will see that now you see nothing. And why you see nothing you will see presently.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Science, Gentleman

• You should never bet against anything in science at odds of more than about 10-12 to 1.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Science, Odds, Should

• Should a young scientist working with me come to me after two years of such work and ask me what to do next, I would advise him to get out of science. After two years of work, if a man does not know what to do next, he will never make a real scientist.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Real, Hard Work, Knowledge

• [From uranium] there are present at least two distinct types of radiation one that is very readily absorbed, which will be termed for convenience the α radiation, and the other of a more penetrative character, which will be termed the β radiation.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Character, Science, Two

• You know, I am sorry for the poor fellows that haven't got labs to work in.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Sorry, Science, Labs

• I have to keep going, as there are always people on my track. I have to publish my present work as rapidly as possible in order to keep in the race. The best sprinters in this road of investigation are Becquerel and the Curies.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Science, Race, Order

• The energy produced by the breaking down of the atom is a very poor kind of thing. Anyone who expects a source of power from the transformation of these atoms is talking moonshine.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Science, Talking, Energy

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