Edward Teller

“I don't want to kill anybody. I am passionately opposed to killing, but I'm even more passionately fond of freedom. The freedom of Dr. Pauling and of myself expressing our opinions freely on any subject, however broad, however far removed of our proper competence, but particularly, to be able to express our opinions in the fields we really know; this would not be possible in Russia.”

“By having simplified what is known, physicists have been led into realms which as yet are anything but simple. That at some time, they, too, will appear as simple consequences of a theory of which no one has yet dreamed is not a statement of fact. It is a statement of faith.”

“There's no system foolproof enough to defeat a sufficiently great fool.”

“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.”

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

“Physics is, hopefully, simple. Physicists are not.”

“No, I'm the infamous Edward Teller.”

“We must learn to live with contradictions, because they lead to deeper and more effective understanding.”

“I contributed; Ulam did not. I'm sorry I had to answer it in this abrupt way. Ulam was rightly dissatisfied with an old approach. He came to me with a part of an idea which I already had worked out and difficulty getting people to listen to. He was willing to sign a paper. When it then came to defending that paper and really putting work into it, he refused. He said, "I don't believe in it."”

“My name is not Strangelove. I don't know about Strangelove. I'm not interested in Strangelove. What else can I say?... Look. Say it three times more, and I throw you out of this office.”

“The eyes of childhood are magnifying lenses.”

“When you fight for a desperate cause and have good reasons to fight, you usually win.”

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

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

“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.”

“If we could have ended the war by showing the power of science without killing a single person, all of us would now be happier, more reasonable and much more safe.”

“I hate doubt, yet I am certain that doubt is the only way to approach anything worth believing in.”

“I believe in good. It is an ephemeral and elusive quality. It is the center of my beliefs, but it cannot be strengthened by talking about it.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I believe that no endeavor that is worthwhile is simple in prospect; if it is right, it will be simple in retrospect.”