Atoms Quotes

• A physicist is just an atom's way of looking at itself.

  Niels Bohr

  Science, Alaska, Way

  144 Copy quote

• Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.

  Democritus

  Motivational, Philosophy, Science

  Diogenes Laertius, vol.9.

  168 Copy quote

  Show source

• I, a universe of atoms, an atom in the universe.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Cosmology, Universe

  Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.65, Princeton University Press

  69 Copy quote

  Show source

• The atom has taught me that the little things do count - most.

  Sri Chinmoy

  Littles, Taught, Little Things

  "Meditations: Food For The Soul (June 5)". Book by Sri Chinmoy, 1971.

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.

  Jack London

  Inspirational, Life, Ambition

  Quoted in Bulletin (San Francisco), 2 Dec. 1916.

  121 Copy quote

  Show source

• Non-violence ... is the only thing that the atom bomb cannot destroy.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Science, Bombs, Violence

  Mahatma Gandhi, Anand T. Hingorani, Ganga Anand Hingorani (1985). “The Encyclopaedia of Gandhian Thoughts”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Everything that we perceive around us is struggling towards freedom, from the atom to the man, from the insentient, lifeless particle of matter to the highest existence on earth, the human soul. The whole universe is in fact the result of this struggle for freedom.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Struggle, Men, Soul

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “Karma Yoga: The Yoga of Action”, p.64, Advaita Ashrama

  35 Copy quote

  Show source

• Every atom is working and resisting every thought in the mind. Everything we see and know is but the resultant of these two forces.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Two, Mind, Force

  Swami Vivekananda (1926). “The Complete Works of the Swami Vivekananda, Comprising All His Lectures, Addresses and Discourses Delivered in Europe, America and India: All His Writings in Prose and Poetry, Together with Translations of Those Written in Bengali and Sanskrit; Reports of His Interviews and His Replies to the Various Addresses of Welcome; His Sayings and Epistles,--private and Public--original and Translated; with an Index; Carefully Revised & Edited”

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• You cannot take away one atom of matter or one foot-pound of force. You cannot add to the universe one atom of matter or one foot-pound of force. As such, evolution does not come out of zero; then, where does it come from? From previous involution.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Zero, Feet, Doe

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “Jnana Yoga: The Yoga of Knowledge”, p.110, editionNEXT.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Every atom is trying to go and join itself to the next atom. Atoms after atoms combine, making huge balls, the earths, the suns, the moons, the stars, the planets. They in their turn, are trying to rush towards each other, and at last, we know that the whole universe, mental and material, will be fused into one.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Stars, Moon, Trying

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2496, Manonmani Publishers

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Nothing is indifferent, nothing is powerless in the universe; an atom might destroy everything, an atom might save everything!

  Gerard De Nerval

  Science, Might, Indifference

  21 Copy quote

• The first principles of the universe are atoms and empty space; everything else is merely thought to exist.

  Democritus

  Space, Firsts, Principles

  "Democritus", Vol. IX, 44 by Diogenes Laërtius, translated by Robert Drew Hicks, 1925.

  54 Copy quote

  Show source

• What is the most rigorous law of our being? Growth. No smallest atom of our moral, mental, or physical structure can stand still a year. It grows - it must grow; nothing can prevent it.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Years, Law

  Mark Twain (1929). “Stormfield Edition of the Writings of Mark Twain [pseud.].: Mark Twain's speeches”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are as many atoms in one molecule of DNA as there are stars in a typical galaxy.

  Carl Sagan

  Stars, Dna, Typical

  13 Copy quote

• There is in my opinion a great similarity between the problems provided by the mysterious behavior of the atom and those provided by the present economic paradoxes confronting the world.

  Paul Dirac

  World, Opinion, Mysterious

  9 Copy quote

• Language tethers us to the world; without it we spin like atoms.

  Penelope Lively

  World, Language

  Penelope Lively (2007). “Moon Tiger”, p.38, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• All things are made of atoms - little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another. In that one sentence, you will see, there is an enormous amount of information about the world, if just a little imagination and thinking are applied.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Distance, Moving, Knowledge

  "The Feynman Lectures on Physics". Physics textbook by Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton, and Matthew Sands, volume I; lecture 1, "Atoms in Motion"; section 1-2, "Matter is made of atoms"; p. 1-2, 1964.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Atoms have a nucleus, made of protons and neutrons bound together. Around this nucleus shells of electrons spin, and each shell is either full or trying to get full, to balance with the number of protons-to balance the number of positive and negative charges. An atom is like a human heart, you see.

  Kim Stanley Robinson

  Heart, Science, Numbers

  18 Copy quote

• When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. The poet, too, is not nearly so concerned with describing facts as with creating images and establishing mental connections.

  Niels Bohr

  Inspirational, Creating, Poetry

  Niels Bohr's response to questions on the nature of language during his first meeting with Werner Heisenberg (Summer 1920), as quoted in "Discussions about Language", 1933, in Robert J. Pranger "Defense Implications of International Indeterminacy" (p. 11), 1972, and in Steve Giles "Theorizing Modernism: Essays in Critical Theory" (p. 28), 1993.

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• The world isn't made of atoms, it's made of stories.

  Russell Brand

  Stories, World, Made

  7 Copy quote

• Atoms are mainly empty space. Matter is composed chiefly of nothing.

  Carl Sagan

  Space, Matter, Empty

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.243, Ballantine Books

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• An atom must be at least as complex as a grand piano.

  William Kingdon Clifford

  Science, Piano, Complexes

  7 Copy quote

• At quite uncertain times and places,
  The atoms left their heavenly path,
  And by fortuitous embraces,
  Engendered all that being hath.
  And though they seem to cling together,
  And form 'associations' here,
  Yet, soon or late, they burst their tether,
  And through the depths of space career.

  James Clerk Maxwell

  Science, Careers, Space

  James Clerk Maxwell, “Molecular Evolution”

  54 Copy quote

  Show source

• When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry.

  Niels Bohr

  Science, Language, Used

  Niels Bohr's response to questions on the nature of language during his first meeting with Werner Heisenberg (Summer 1920), as quoted in "Discussions about Language", 1933, in Robert J. Pranger "Defense Implications of International Indeterminacy" (p. 11), 1972, and in Steve Giles "Theorizing Modernism: Essays in Critical Theory" (p. 28), 1993.

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• It has been rightly said that nothing is unimportant, nothing powerless in the universe; a single atom can dissolve everything, and save everything! What terror! There lies the eternal distinction between good and evil.

  Gerard De Nerval

  Lying, Unimportant Things, Evil

  21 Copy quote