Quotes from Edward Teller

The scientist is not responsible for the laws of nature. It is his job to find out how these laws operate...Hydrogen bombs will not produce themselves.

Towards the end of World War II, Theodore von Karman had developed a liquid propellant research rocket at Cal Tech, which he named the Corporal...During the test in which a modified version of the Corporal had reached 80,000 feet, a general who was also observing the test asked von Karman how much higher the Corporal could go. Von Karman immediately replied, "Only to Colonel. Beyond that they don't work any more.

There is a time for scientists and movie stars and those who have flown the atlantic to restrain their opinions lest they be taken more seriously than they should be.

Had we not pursued the hydrogen bomb, there is a very real threat that we would now all be speaking Russian. I have no regrets.

A state-of-the-art calculation requires 100 hours of CPU time on the state-of-the-art computer, independent of the decade.

No endeavor that is worthwhile is simple in prospect; if it is right, it will be simple in retrospect.

I believe in evil. It is the property of all those who are certain of truth. Despair and fanaticism are only differing manifestations of evil.

Physics is, hopefully, simple. Physicists are not.

I tried to contribute to the defeat of the Soviets. If I contributed 1%, it is 1% of something enormous.

If anyone wants a hole in the ground, nuclear explosives can make big holes

In our educational institutions applied science may almost be described as a "no-man's land."

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.

Secrecy in science does not work. Withholding information does more damage to us than to our competitors.

Secrecy, once accepted, becomes an addiction.

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

I think that intellectuals who end up in hell will have to read page proofs and check indexes there.

I believe in excellence. It is a basic need of every human soul. All of us can be excellent, because, fortunately, we are exceedingly diverse in our ambitions and talents.

The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy; the best weapon of a democracy is openness.

U.S. has lost a battle more important and greater than Pearl Harbor.

Really exotic methods of propulsion . . . will have to be devised to get there. How it will be done, I do not know. Whether it will be done, I am not quite certain. But I would bet it can be done.