J. Robert Oppenheimer Quotes

It is a profound and necessary truth that the deep things in science are not found because they are useful: they are found because it was possible to find them.

The deep things in science are not found because they are useful; they are found because it was possible to find them..

Understanding science and pushing the boundaries of science is what makes me immensely satisfied.

Knowing how contented, free, and joyful is life in the world of science, one fervently wishes that many would enter its portals.

What scientist would not long to go on living, if only to see how the little truths he has brought to light will grow up?

The real value of science is in the getting, and those who have tasted the pleasure of discovery alone know what science is. A problem solved is dead. A world without problems to be solved would be devoid of science.

When, as we must often do, we fear science, we really fear ourselves.

Very few recognize science as the high adventure it really is, the wildest of all explorations ever taken by human beings, the chance to glimpse things never seen before, the shrewdest maneuver for discovering how the world works.

The methods and tools of science perennially breach barriers, granting me confidence that our epic march of insight into the operations of nature will continue without end.

The most obvious characteristic of science is its application: the fact that, as a consequence of science, one has a power to do things. And the effect this power has had need hardly be mentioned. The whole industrial revolution would almost have been impossible without the development of science.

Science is an enterprise that should be cherished as an activity of the free human mind. Because it transforms who we are, how we live, and it gives us an understanding of our place in the universe.

I proceed with the proper subject of this discourse; namely, the further changes in scientific belief, which have occurred within my own recollection, even since the time when I first aspired to authorship, now forty- five years ago.

Typically, there's a drive in science to do something just to say you've done it.

It doesn't matter whether it is chemistry or immunology or neuroscience: I just do research on what I find interesting.

In the history of science, we often find that the study of some natural phenomenon has been the starting point in the development of a new branch of knowledge.

I had the idea that it would be wonderful to be a physicist or a mathematician maybe 500 years ago around the time of Newton when there were really fundamental things just lying around to be discovered.

In science, every question answered leads to 10 more. I love that science can never, ever be finished. From a young age, people think, 'Science is hard and boring.' We don't tell children, 'Yes, you have to learn these formulae and theorems, but then you go on to learn about nuclear reactions and stars.'

Every science has been an outcast.

The emergence of modern science as a major new frontier of advancement that would lead, on one hand, to the discovery of new secrets of the universe, the invention of means to harness those secrets and the powers they represented, and the means to improve human health and allow humans to survive to both undertake that work and to enjoy its fruits.

It must be for truth's sake, and not for the sake of its usefulness to humanity, that the scientific man studies Nature.

I felt I had had enough of politicians and government upheavals …. Suddenly I was enveloped in the feeling that only science is lasting.

I am among those who think that science has great beauty.

Fundamental science that may not achieve results must be supported at the state level.

I know that I derive the same kind of spiritual fulfillment from what I do, being a planetary scientist, seeing our exploration of the solar system come to fruition. I get such a spiritual high from it that I don't even see the need for religion.

It is understandable that people want to know how it affects them. But as a scientist, I would hope society would be equally interested in fundamental science.