Atomic Weapons Quotes

• The mere existence of atomic weapons implies the possibility of their use.

  Georgy Zhukov

  Use, Weapons, Possibility

  "The arms race: a programme for world disarmament" by Philip John Noel-Baker, (p. 297), 1960.

  60 Copy quote

  Show source

• If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.

  Albert Einstein

  Knowledge, Science, Should Have

  21 Copy quote

• Every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when this planet may no longer be habitable .. The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us.

  John F. Kennedy

  War, Nuclear Disarmament, Nuclear Proliferation

  Address to the United Nations General Assembly, delivered 25 September 1961

  57 Copy quote

  Show source

• The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us.

  John F. Kennedy

  War, Nuclear Disarmament, Nukes

  Address to the United Nations General Assembly, delivered 25 September 1961

  70 Copy quote

  Show source

• Access to the Vedas is the greatest privilege this century may claim over all previous centuries.

  J. Robert Oppenheimer

  Vedas, May, Privilege

  71 Copy quote

• I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.

  J. Robert Oppenheimer

  Death, Military, Hiroshima And Nagasaki

  Onthe detonationof the first atomicbomb,16 Jul1945.Quoted in Len Giovanitti and Fred FreedThe Decision to Drop the Bomb (1965).

  32 Copy quote

  Show source

• I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Funny, Wisdom

  Albert Einstein (2003). “Einstein's 1912 manuscript on the special theory of relativity”, George Braziller

  191 Copy quote

  Show source

• Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war that we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living.

  Omar N. Bradley

  War, Evil, Nuclear Missiles

  30 Copy quote

• But so far, you know who's been violating the nuclear nonproliferation pact day and night? Those who signed it. Iran, Iraq, Libya and Iran violates it while calling for Israel's destruction and racing to develop atomic weapons to that end.

  Benjamin Netanyahu

  Night, Iran, Iraq

  "Benjamin Netanyahu on Alleged Rift With President Obama, Mideast Peace Process". "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace, www.foxnews.com. July 11, 2010.

  70 Copy quote

  Show source

• A dark and terrible side of this sense of community of interests is the fear of a horrible common destiny which in these days of atomic weapons darkens men's minds all around the globe.

  Emily Greene Balch

  Dark, Destiny, Men

  Emily Greene Balch (1972). “Beyond Nationalism: The Social Thought of Emily Greene Balch”, New York : Twayne Publishers

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the sermon on the mount.

  Omar N. Bradley

  History, Atoms, Nuclear

  Speech on Armistice Day, Boston, Mass., 11 Nov. 1948

  81 Copy quote

  Show source

• Today we are rightly in an era of disarmament and dismantlement of nuclear weapons. But in some countries nuclear weapons development still continues. Whether and when the various Nations of the World can agree to stop this is uncertain. But individual scientists can still influence this process by withholding their skills.

  Hans Bethe

  Country, Nuclear Disarmament, Skills

  Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Journal, 51:6, 3, November, 1995.

  60 Copy quote

  Show source

• I call on all scientists in all countries to cease and desist from work creating, developing, improving and manufacturing further nuclear weapons - and, for that matter, other weapons of potential mass destruction such as chemical and biological weapons.

  Hans Bethe

  Country, Creating, Mass Destruction

  Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Journal, 51:6, 3, November, 1995.

  61 Copy quote

  Show source

• Wars cannot be won by destroying women and children

  William D. Leahy

  Children, War, Hiroshima And Nagasaki

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

  99 Copy quote

  Show source

• So far as I can see the atomic bomb has deadened the finest feeling that has sustained mankind for ages.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Death, Science, Men

  Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Merton (2007). “Gandhi on Non-Violence”, p.45, New Directions Publishing

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.

  Omar N. Bradley

  Anger, Achievement, Society

  "Collected Writings, Volume 1" by Omar N. Bradley, 1967.

  27 Copy quote

  Show source

• The release of atomic power has changed everything except our way of thinking ... the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker. (1945)

  Albert Einstein

  Lying, Heart, Thinking

  33 Copy quote

• It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender... In being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages.

  William D. Leahy

  War, Dark, Ethical Standards

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Despite the vision and farseeing wisdom of our wartime heads of state, the physicists have felt the peculiarly intimate responsibility for suggesting, for supporting, and in the end, in large measure, for achieving the realization of atomic weapons. Nor can we forget that these weapons as they were in fact used dramatized so mercilessly the inhumanity and evil of modern war. In some sort of crude sense which no vulgarity, no humor, no overstatement can quite extinguish, the physicists have known sin; and this is a knowledge which they cannot lose.

  J. Robert Oppenheimer

  Philosophy, War, Responsibility

  Physics in the ContemporaryWorld (1947)

  52 Copy quote

  Show source

• We had been frightened of atomic weapons since 1945. In those days I became convinced - and remain convinced now - that, after Hitler, Truman was the greatest murderer in the world.

  Martin Niemoller

  World, Weapons, Truman

  "Martin Niemöller, 1892-1984" by James Bentley, (p. 213), 1984.

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• Quite often ... these little guys, who might be making atomic weapons or who might be guilty of some human rights violation ... are looking for someone to listen to their problems and help them communicate.

  Jimmy Carter

  Rights, Guy, Littles

  4 Copy quote