Quotes from Edward Teller

Two paradoxes are better than one; they may even suggest a solution.

My experience has been in a short 77 years that in the end when you fight for a desperate cause and have good reasons to fight, you usually win.

When you're certain you cannot be fooled, you become easy to fool.

There is no case where ignorance should be preferred to knowledge - especially if the knowledge is terrible.

One may say that predictions are dangerous particularly for the future. If the danger involved in a prediction is not incurred, no consequence follows and the uncertainty principle is not violated.

In the theater you create a moment, but in that moment, there is a touch, a twinkle of eternity. And not just eternity, but community. . . . That connection is a sense of life for me.

Life improves slowly and goes wrong fast, and only catastrophe is clearly visible.

The science of today is the technology of tomorrow.

The main purpose of science is simplicity and as we understand more things, everything is becoming simpler.

Life improves slowly and goes wrong fast, and only catastrophe is clearly visible.

Two paradoxes are better than one they may even suggest a solution.

When you get to the end of all the light that you know and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things will happen: either you will be given something solid to stand on or you will be taught how to fly.

Engineers are, by definition, people whose work is dedicated to making people's lives easier; or, as people used to say, whose work is dedicated to progress.

A fact is a simple statement that everyone believes. It is innocent unless found guilty. A hypothesis is a novel suggestion that no one wants to believe. It is guilty until found effective.

Today's science is tomorrow's technology.

The scientist is not responsible for the laws of nature. It is his job to find out how these laws operate. It is the scientist's job to find the ways in which these laws can serve the human will. However, it is not the scientist's job to determine whether a hydrogen bomb should be constructed, whether it should be used, or how it should be used. This responsibility rests with the American people and with their chosen representatives.

When you get to the end of all the light you know, and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: either you will be given something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly.

When you get to the end of all light you know and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown,faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: Either you will be given something solid to stand on,or you will be taught how to fly.

Today, nothing is unusual about a scientific discovery's being followed soon after by a technical application: The discovery of electrons led to electronics; fission led to nuclear energy. But before the 1880's, science played almost no role in the advances of technology. For example, James Watt developed the first efficient steam engine long before science established the equivalence between mechanical heat and energy.

When you come to the end of all the light you know, and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: Either you will be given something solid to stand on or you will be taught to fly.

Science attempts to find logic and simplicity in nature. Mathematics attempts to establish order and simplicity in human thought.

Secrecy, once accepted, becomes an addiction.

Nationalism has little to contribute today except further suffering.

Most people avoid thinking if they can, some of us are addicted to thinking, but Von Neumann actually enjoyed thinking, maybe even to the exclusion of everything else.