John Cheever Quotes

… 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 unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.

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

I say the word N-U-C-L-E-R the same way that George W. Bush says it.

Every dollar spent on nuclear is one less dollar spent on clean renewable energy and one more dollar spent on making the world a comparatively dirtier and a more dangerous place, because nuclear power and nuclear weapons go hand in hand.

We have every interest in seeing that the military use of nuclear power will be contained.

I'm still bothered by the threat of nuclear war.

If we are to assume that North Korea becomes a nuclear-power state, of course the danger of having an all-out nuclear war, that possibility is very slim.

We are still at the stumbling stage in atomic weapons.

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 view current US nuclear weapons policy as immoral, illegal, militarily unnecessary and dreadfully dangerous, creating unacceptable risks to other nations and to our own"

It is most regrettable that nuclear energy is being harnessed for making nuclear weapons.

People tend to forget about nuclear weapons. We think they are going to remain in silos for the rest of time. As long as they exist, they are going to be used.

We have to be extremely vigilant and extremely careful when it comes to nuclear. Nuclear changes the whole ball game.

As far as the nuclear is concerned, I agree. It is the single greatest threat that this country has.

I, who had been in favour of nuclear energy for generating electricity ... I suddenly realised that anybody who has a nuclear reactor can extract the plutonium from the reactor and make nuclear weapons, so that a country which has a nuclear reactor can, at any moment that it wants to, become a nuclear weapons power. And I, right from the beginning, have been terribly worried by the existence of nuclear weapons and very much against their use.

The future of the world, dependent as it is upon atomic energy, requires more understanding and knowledge about the atom.

We still live in a world where if you have nuclear weapons, you are buying power; you are buying insurance against attack.

I argue that for every country to have an independent fuel cycle is the wrong way to go. Because any country which has a complete fuel cycle is a latent nuclear weapons country, in the sense that it is not far from making a nuclear weapon.

I think there are many times when it would be most efficient to use nuclear weapons. However, the public opinion in this country and throughout the world throw up their hands in horror when you mention nuclear weapons, just because of the propaganda that's been fed to them.

The real abhorrent consequence of the invention of atomic bombs is the fact that we still have them and they're spreading.

The Atomic Age is here to stay - but are we?

Above all else, we need a reaffirmation of political commitment at the highest levels to reducing the dangers that arise both from existing nuclear weapons and from further proliferation.

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.

Nuclear arms and atomic power represent a technology in which coexistence with man is extremely difficult.