Thomas E. Murray Quotes

The human race has today the means for annihilating itself—either in a fit of complete lunacy ... or by a careless handling of atomic technology, through the slow poisoning and of deterioration in its genetic structure.

For the first time in the history of mankind, one generation literally has the power to destroy the past, the present and the future, the power to bring time to an end.

It would be wonderful if I could see the end of civilization during my lifetime.

Some day science may have the existence of mankind in its power, and the human race can commit suicide by blowing up the world.

To have the ability to destroy all and not to do it was one of the hard tests humanity passed - but only just - in the middle of the twentieth century.

Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.

The end of the world is on people's minds. We have the power to destroy or save ourselves, but the question is what do you do with that responsibility.

Limiting nuclear war is like limiting the mission of a match thrown in a keg of gunpowder.

Not only may our own culture be destroyed by these weapons of mass destruction, but all civilizations as they exist in the world may be retarded and weakened for centuries to come. It all adds up to the most dangerous situation that humanity has ever faced in all history

I would not recommend the use of any atomic weapon, no matter how small, when both sides have the power to destroy the world.

The papers are full of the atomic bomb [Hiroshima] which is going to revolutionize everything and blow us all to buggery. Not a bad idea.

Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please …. All history is the record of man’s signal failure to thwart his destiny.

We turned the switch, saw the flashes, watched for ten minutes, then switched everything off and went home. That night I knew the world was headed for sorrow

We may well blow each other up with atomic weapons before we wipe out all species of life including our own with more gradual means.

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

Man is the only living species that has the power to act as his own destroyer—and that is the way he has acted through most of his history.

Nuclear war would really set back cable.

They say we have we created the man to end all wars; I say we have created a man to end all worlds.

In reality this is the very reverse of what we are told about the biblical God, who opens up freedom for us, who lets us make our own history, who goes with us on the more or less unheard-of adventures that we concoct.

Except for fools and madmen, everyone knows that nuclear war would he an unprecedented human catastrophe.

According to the Bible, God created the heavens and the Earth. It is man’s prerogative - and woman’s - to create their own particular and private hell.

Maybe we need to look upon technologies and social networks as things that come out of us, not things that lead us. We can be on top of these things instead of them bein' on top of us as human beings.

Instead of saying that man is the creature of circumstance, it would be nearer the mark to say that man is the architect of circumstance.

There is nothing left worth preserving in the notions of unseen powers, controlling human destiny, to which obedience and worship are due.

Aegistheus, the kings have another secret.... Once liberty has exploded in the soul of a man, the Gods can do nothing against that man. It is a matter for men to handle amongst themselves, and it is up to other men and to them alone to let him flee or to destroy him.