George F. Kennan Quotes

No nuclear weapon has detonated. Some nuclear weapons have exploded and spread radioactive plutonium…. The nuclear weapons of today are much safer than those of the 1980s. I worry about the way they are managed however.

… literature is the only consciousness we possess and that its role as consciousness must inform us of our ability to comprehend the hideous danger of nuclear power.

The whole nuclear thing is a terrible mess and it's hard for me to understand why it is that we, the United States, seem to be the only ones that are really particularly concerned about it and prepared to do something.

The only reason to treat nuclear power differently from all the other developments in the field of physics is its staggering possibilities as a means of political pressure in peace and sudden destruction in war.

You might ask me why do I have nuclear powered ships. That is a necessary evil. I would sink them all (if they were not absolutely necessary).

There isn’t going to be any learning curve for nuclear weapons. An administration makes one mistake and the result can destroy entire nations.

The fewer nuclear weapons possessed by the fewest countries is safer, not only because of the possibility of a nuclear accident but also a nuclear war.

Unless Iran’s leadership believes that the costs of building a nuclear weapon will be greater than the benefit those weapons will provide, the Islamic Republic will become a nuclear-armed state.

Nuclear is the single greatest threat.

Today, the danger of some sort of a nuclear catastrophe is greater than it was during the Cold War, and most people are blissfully unaware of this danger.

The risk of just one terrorist with just one nuclear weapon is a risk we simply cannot afford to take.

Responsible statesmen have only one choice - to do everything possible to prevent a nuclear catastrophe. Any other position is short-sighted; more so, it is suicidal.

Even with the best intentions, you can have a nuclear war, a nuclear holocaust, through miscalculation, through accidents.

A nuclear weapon is not just a football that you can use at will.

Any possession of nuclear weapons in the Middle East is a danger.

By developing atomic energy for peaceful purposes, you reach the nuclear option. There are no two atomic energies.

I don't know why people are always afraid of a nuclear blast.

Now that the threat against which we need nuclear weapons is no longer clear, all that is clear is the threat of the nuclear weapons themselves—to the environment and the human race.

The centerpiece of a serious campaign to prevent nuclear terrorism … should be denying terrorists access to weapons and their components. After all, no nuclear weapons or material means no nuclear terrorism; it’s that simple.

We cannot have as our goal a world that cannot conceivably come to pass unless all scientific knowledge of the atom is erased.

In the past, scientists could disclaim direct responsibility for the use to which mankind had put their disinterested discoveries. We cannot take the same attitude now because the success which we have achieved in the development of nuclear power is fraught with infinitely greater dangers than were all the inventions of the past.

I do not believe that nuclear power is worth it, if it creates radiation.

Nuclear weapons are the greatest national security risk to the United States, and they are the most important weapons in our arsenal.

Nearly one third of Japan would have had to evacuate from their communities…. I came to believe that we should halt further operations of nuclear energy that entail such huge risks…. Japan can supply its energy needs without nuclear power

Dwight Eisenhower… supported the nuclearization of the military and the militarization of nuclear weapons as a cost saving way of deterring the Soviets. Under Eisenhower, custody or nuclear weapons shifted from the civilian Atomic Energy Commission to the military.