Quotes from Kai Bird

What would happen to a country found to be building nuclear weapons? Baruch thought a stockpile of nuclear weapons should be set aside and automatically used against any country found in violation. He called this "condign punishment.

Palestinian guerrillas, in a bold and coordinated action, created this newest crisis Sunday, and in doing so they accomplished what they set out to do: they thrust back into the world's attention a problem diplomats have tended to shunt aside in hesitant steps towards Middle East peace.

Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature.

Instead of defining themselves by their biblical identity as the "Chosen People," Jews should distinguish themselves by their social concern and their deeds on behalf of the laboring classes.

in the last war, the two nations which we like to think are the most enlightened and humane in the world—Great Britain and the United States—used atomic weapons against an enemy which was essentially defeated.

Try to find out, by watching yourself, what you really want; if you approve of it, try to get it; if you disapprove of it, try to get over it.

The dawn invests our substance with desire And the slow light betrays us, and our wistfulness: When the celestial saffron Is faded and grown colourless, And the sun Gone sterile, and the growing fire Stirs us to waken, We find ourselves again Each in his separate prison Ready, hopeless For negotiation With other men.

the Gita celebrates a life of action and engagement with the world. As such, it was compatible with Oppenheimer's Ethical Culture upbringing; but there also were important differences. The Gita's notions of karma, destiny and earthly duty would seem to be at odds with the humanitarianism of the Ethical Culture Society.

This is a world," he said, "in which each of us, knowing his limitations, knowing the evils of superficiality, will have to cling to what is close to him, to what he knows, to what he can do, to his friends and his tradition and his love, lest he be dissolved in a universal confusion and know nothing and love nothing. . . .

In retrospect, all of his friends noted that he seemed to be wrestling in these years with inner demons. "My feeling about myself," Oppenheimer later said of this period in his life, "was always one of extreme discontent. I had very little sensitiveness to human beings, very little humility before the realities of this world.

McCarthyite hysteria that had enveloped Washington. Equating dissent with disloyalty

He had become the simple philosopher king, adored by his ragtag followers of expatriates, retirees, beatniks and natives.

Weinberg, whom Oppenheimer had come to regard as one of his brightest students, observed that mathematical formulas were like temporary hand-holds for a rock-climber. Each hand-hold more or less dictates the position of the next hand-hold. "A record of that," Weinberg said, "is a record of a particular climb. It gives you very little of the shape of the rock.

we are 140 million people, and there are two billion people living on earth." However confident Americans might be that their views and ideas will prevail, the absolute "denial of the views and ideas of other people, cannot be the basis of any kind of agreement.

1951, he was shown the Air Force's strategic war plan—which called for the obliteration of Soviet cities on a scale that shocked him. It was a war plan of criminal genocide.

To try to be happy is to try to build a machine with no other specification than that it shall run noiselessly.

The Air Force did not want Eisenhower exposed to Oppenheimer's thinking, particularly since his views would support the Army's demand for a bigger share of the atomic budget.

Increasingly alarmed by the development of what President Eisenhower would someday call the "military-industrial complex," Oppenheimer had tried to use his celebrity status to question the scientific community's increasing dependency on the military. In 1954, he lost.

Funny how the mountains always inspire our work.

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too: If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise Ã¢â'¬Â¦

The renowned Danish physicist then asked politely, "How is it going?" Robert replied bluntly, "I'm in difficulties." Bohr asked, "Are the difficulties mathematical or physical?" When Robert replied, "I don't know," Bohr said, "That's bad." Bohr

Lawrence's relentless drive for ever larger and more powerful cyclotrons epitomized the trend toward the kind of "big science" associated with the rise of corporate America in the early twentieth century. Only four industrial laboratories existed in the country in 1890; forty years later there were nearly one thousand such facilities.

The guilt consciousness of the atomic bomb scientists is one of the most astounding things I have ever seen.

Thereafter, the Gibneys and the Oppenheimers had nothing to do with each other. They hired lawyers and squabbled over beach rights. The feud became a legend on the island.