J. Robert Oppenheimer Quotes

I appeal to my fellow scientists to remember their responsibility to humanity.

Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or ill it teaches the whole people by its example.

Scientists surely have a special responsibility. It is their ideas that form the basis of new technology. They should not be indifferent to the fruits of their ideas. They should forgo experiments that are risky or unethical.

Some people have much more pull than other people. But when I say that the public has ultimate responsibility, I'm not saying it in a moral sense. I'm just saying it in the sense of what is it that's really going to bring change.

The federal government has sponsored research that has produced a tomato that is perfect in every respect, except that you can't eat it. We should make every effort to make sure this disease, often referred to as 'progress', doesn't spread.

Science, which is not so attached to 'truth' as it once was, ut more to immediate 'effectiveness', is now drifting towards a decline, it's civic fall from grace.

Science in our technical age has social, economic, and political functions, and however remote one's own work is from technical application it is a link in the chain of actions and decisions which determine the fate of the human race.

Do you trust in your fellow citizens, in a sense that whatever they will have in additional tools they will use in balance more to the good or more to the bad? If you think they will use it more to the bad, you shouldn't do science, you know.

If you want to have a big impact, government is the way to do it. Just think of the number of people you can touch.

Top technologists have a tremendous capacity - and, therefore, a tremendous responsibility - to build things that make a positive impact on the world.

Today's public opinion, though it may appear as light as air, may be tomorrow's legislation-for better or for worse.

... science is the most revolutionary force in the world.

Consciences keep silence more often than they should, that's why laws were created.

Scientists, therefore, are responsible for their research, not only intellectually but also morally. This responsibility has become an important issue in many of today's sciences, but especially so in physics, in which the results of quantum mechanics and relativity theory have opened up two very different paths for physicists to pursue. They may lead us - to put it in extreme terms -- to the Buddha or to the Bomb, and it is up to each of us to decide which path to take.

What did you do to change the world today?

My skills were acquired not only in a cloistered academic environment but also in a commercial jungle … Although our culture approves and even honors these practices, to me they were always abhorrent. Hence, I looked forward to the time when I could use these skills not for myself but for socially constructive ends.

You don’t have to wait till your party’s in power to have an impact on life at home and around the world

It is true that [the] present-day young are idealistic. But theirs is the easy idealism that condemns abuses and pushes aside any thought that would reveal the difficulties and complexities inherent in righting wrongs. They are not willing to do the hard work by which alone the world can be improved. Hearing what they say, and seeing what they do, one suspects that one of the main functions of the young’s idealism is finding good reasons for doing bad things.

I am trying to change the world.

I'm used to my films having little effect on making the world a better place.

If we don't challenge each other to use our platforms for better than our niches or what our quote-unquote brand is, what are we doing as influencers? If we can't activate our audiences at the times it's important or needed, then what do we have these platforms for?

The Industrial Revolution has two phases: one material, the other social; one concerning the making of things, the other concerning the making of men.

Human affairs require some combination of moral commitment with disciplined political action. And that is what keeps me intrigued and challenged and wanting to influence events.

We've got technological wonders around us, and we've used them to abrogate all responsibility for everything in our lives.

Sartre said that wars were acts and that, with literature, you could produce changes in history. Now, I don't think literature doesn't produce changes, but I think the social and political effect of literature is much less controllable than I thought.