"To what appeared to be the simplest questions, [modern physics] will tend to give either no answer or an answer which will at first sight be reminiscent more of a strange catechism than of the straightforward affirmatives of physical science. If we ask, for instance, whether the position of the electron remains the same, we must say 'no'; if we ask whether the electron's position changes with time, we must say 'no'; if we ask whether the electron is at rest, we must say 'no'; if we ask whether it is in motion, we must say 'no'. The Buddha has given such answers when interrogated as to the conditions of a man's self after his death; but they are not familiar answers for the tradition of seventeenth and eighteenth century science."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Anti-fascistsEngineers from the United StatesAcademics from the United StatesAgnostics from the United StatesCalifornia Institute of Technology faculty
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
J. R. Oppenheimer, Science and the Common Understanding, (Oxford University Press, 1954) pp 40
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Oppenheimer
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Robert Oppenheimer
Julius Robert Oppenheimer (22 April 1904 – 18 February 1967) was an American physicist and the scientific director of the Manhattan Project.
46 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Robert Oppenheimer →
Related Quotes
"It was evening when we came to the river With a low moon over the desert that we had lost in the mountains, forgotten…"
"I can't think that it would be terrible of me to say — and it is occasionally true — that I need physics more than fr…"
"Everyone wants rather to be pleasing to women and that desire is not altogether, though it is very largely, a manifes…"
"I believe that through discipline, though not through discipline alone, we can achieve serenity, and a certain small …"
"It worked!"
"It is with appreciation and gratefulness that I accept from you this scroll for the Los Alamos Laboratory, and for th…"
"Despite the vision and farseeing wisdom of our wartime heads of state, the physicists have felt the peculiarly intima…"
"The extreme danger to mankind inherent in the proposal [to develop thermonuclear weapons] wholly outweighs any milita…"
"There must be no barriers to freedom of inquiry … There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and …"
"There are no secrets about the world of nature. There are secrets about the thoughts and intentions of men."