Edward Teller

“Today's science is tomorrow's technology.”

“Two paradoxes are better than one; they may even suggest a solution.”

“Life improves slowly and goes wrong fast, and only catastrophe is clearly visible.”

“Had we not pursued the hydrogen bomb, there is a very real threat that we would now all be speaking Russian. I have no regrets.”

“When you get to the end of all the light you know and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: either you will be given something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly.”

“A fact is a simple statement that everyone believes. It is innocent, unless found guilty. A hypothesis is a novel suggestion that no one wants to believe. It is guilty, until found effective.”

“Secrecy, once accepted, becomes an addiction.”

“No endeavor that is worthwhile is simple in prospect; if it is right, it will be simple in retrospect.”

“I tried to contribute to the defeat of the Soviets. If I contributed 1%, it is 1% of something enormous.”

“The science of today is the technology of tomorrow.”

“The main purpose of science is simplicity and as we understand more things, everything is becoming simpler.”

“Most people avoid thinking if they can, some of us are addicted to thinking, but Von Neumann actually enjoyed thinking, maybe even to the exclusion of everything else.”

“My experience has been in a short 77 years that in the end when you fight for a desperate cause and have good reasons to fight, you usually win.”

“Physics is, hopefully, simple. Physicists are not.”