Luis Walter Alvarez Quotes

• I don't like to say bad things about paleontologists, but they're not very good scientists. They're more like stamp collectors.

  Luis Walter Alvarez

  Scientist, Stamps, Very Good

  50 Copy quote

• [My father] advised me to sit every few months in my reading chair for an entire evening, close my eyes and try to think of new problems to solve. I took his advice very seriously and have been glad ever since that he did.

  Luis Walter Alvarez

  Father, Reading, Eye

  65 Copy quote

• There is no democracy in physics. We can't say that some second-rate guy has as much right to opinion as Fermi.

  Luis Walter Alvarez

  Science, Guy, Democracy

  "The Politics of Pure Science". Book by Daniel S. Greenberg, p. 43, 1967.

  46 Copy quote

• Most of us who become experimental physicists do so for two reasons; we love the tools of physics because to us they have intrinsic beauty, and we dream of finding new secrets of nature as important and as exciting as those uncovered by our scientific heroes. But we walk a narrow path with pitfalls on either side. If we spend all our time developing equipment, we risk the appellation of "plumber," and if we merely use the tools developed by others, we risk the censure of our peers for being parasitic.

  Luis Walter Alvarez

  Dream, Hero, Science

  34 Copy quote

• I'm convinced that a controlled disrespect for authority is essential to a scientist. All the good experimental physicists I have known have had an intense curiosity that no Keep Out sign could mute. Physicists do, of course, show a healthy respect for High Voltage, Radiation, and Liquid Hydrogen signs. They are not reckless. I can think of only six who have been killed on the job.

  Luis Walter Alvarez

  Jobs, Science, Thinking

  35 Copy quote

• The last few centuries have seen the world freed from several scourges-slavery, for example; death by torture for heretics; and, most recently, smallpox. I am optimistic enough to believe that the next scourge to disappear will be large-scale warfare-killed by the existence and nonuse of nuclear weapons.

  Luis Walter Alvarez

  War, Believe, Optimistic

  22 Copy quote

• Dirac politely refused Robert's [Robert Oppenheimer] two proffered books: reading books, the Cambridge theoretician announced gravely, "interfered with thought."

  Luis Walter Alvarez

  Book, Reading, Science

  13 Copy quote

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