Andrei Sakharov Quotes

As long as some of us choose to rely on nuclear weapons, we continue to risk that these same weapons will become increasingly attractive to others.

Nuclear weapons are what make us a great power.

The Physicist was the darling of the cold war …atomic energy was responsible for so much of the politics of the Cold War.

We do not believe that a nuclear war should be fought and we do not believe that a nuclear war can be won.

The Soviet Union will not produce an atomic bomb for at least another 4 years

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.

I think one country with nuclear weapons is one country too many.

My feelings of revulsion and foreboding about nuclear weapons had not changed an iota since 1945, and they have never left me. Since I was 14, the overriding objective of my life has been to prevent the occurrence of nuclear war.

It's a near miracle that nuclear war has so far been avoided.

My entry into the environmental arena was through the issue that so dramatically - and destructively - demonstrates the link between science and social action: nuclear weapons.

The greatest achievement of America in the last 70 years has been the prevention of a post Nagasaki nuclear proliferation.

Nut With A Nuke

There is only one thing worse than one nation having the atomic bomb -- that's two nations having it.

We can do better than condone a world in which nuclear weapons are accepted as commonplace.

The way to win an atomic war is to make sure it never starts.

On our nuclear weapons we should draw a mushroom cloud and put underneath it, 'Made in America by lazy and illiterate Americans and tested in Japan.'

Russia will likely have the atomic bomb by mid-1953.

Nuclear weapons exist. They probably always will. And they work, with horrible efficiency. They threaten the very future of our species. We have no choice but to manage that risk. Never again can we put the task out of our minds; nor trivialize it; nor make it routine.

Nuclear proliferation is inevitable … the "middle powers" of the world are simply not going to accept having zero weapons while the United States has thousands.

I think we have to get rid of nuclear weapons. The idea that somehow by having nuclear weapons you make the world a safer place is essentially insane.

In 1982 over one million people gathered in Central Park of New York City to demonstrate against nuclear weapons. It was the largest demonstration in the history of the United States.

The aggressor too should know that the preemptive use of nuclear weapons would not insure victory. With modern detection systems and the combat readiness of the Soviet Union's strategic nuclear forces, the United States would not be able to deal a crippling blow to the socialist countries. The aggressor will not be able to evade an all-crushing retaliatory strike

Could anyone in his right mind speak seriously of any limited nuclear war? It should be quite clear that the aggressor's actions will instantly and inevitably trigger a devastating counterstroke by the other side. None but completely irresponsible people could maintain that a nuclear war may be made to follow rules adopted beforehand, with nuclear missiles exploding in a "gentlemanly manner" over strictly designated targets and sparing the population.

We will use nuclear weapons whenever it serves our vital interests.

We were able and we had a plan to launch nuclear test in 1984, but then President General Zia had opposed the move.