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Quote by J. Robert Oppenheimer

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Atom and Void: Essays on Science and Community

Atom and Void: Essays on Science and Community is a thought-provoking compilation that examines the role of science in shaping community dynamics. The essays cover a range of scientific subjects, reflecting on how scientific advancements affect and are influenced by social structures and collective human endeavors. more

Author

J. Robert Oppenheimer
J. Robert Oppenheimer

J. Robert Oppenheimer was a theoretical physicist who played a pivotal role in the development of quantum mechanics and the Manhattan Project. He is best known for his leadership of the Los Alamos National Laboratory during the Manhattan Project, which resulted in the creation of the first atomic bombs. Oppenheimer was born on April 22, 1904, and passed away on February 18, 1967. more

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“The partitions of knowledge are not like several lines that meet in one angle, and so touch not in a point; but are like branches of a tree, that meet in a stem, which hath a dimension and quantity of entireness and continuance, before it come to discontinue and break itself into arms and boughs.”

KnowsScienceLinesKnowledgeBreakTreeArmsBranchesDimensionsQuantityStemAnglePartitionContinuance
Book:The Advancement of Learning
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“The purpose of science is to develop, without prejudice or preconception of any kind, a knowledge of the facts, the laws, and the processes of nature. The even more important task of religion, on the other hand, is to develop the consciences, the ideals, and the aspirations of mankind.”

KindImportantFactsHandsLawSciencePurposeProcessKnowledgeMankindConscienceIdealsTasksAccountsPrejudiceAspirationPreconceptions
Book:The electron, its isolation and measurement ant the determination of some of its properties
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“The Reader may here observe the Force of Numbers, which can be successfully applied, even to those things, which one would imagine are subject to no Rules. There are very few things which we know, which are not capable of being reduc'd to a Mathematical Reasoning, and when they cannot, it's a sign our Knowledge of them is very small and confus'd; and where a mathematical reasoning can be had, it's as great folly to make use of any other, as to grope for a thing in the dark when you have a Candle standing by you.”

KnowsMayUseSuccessScienceForceDarkNumbersKnowledgeImagineSubjectsReaderCapableStandingMathematicsMathematicalReasoningFollyCandle
Author:John Arbuthnot
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“The regularity with which we conclude that further advances in a particular field are impossible seems equaled only by the regularity with which events prove that we are of too limited vision. And it always seems to be those who have the fullest opportunity to know who are the most limited in view. What, then, is the trouble? I think that one answer should be: we do not realize sufficiently that the unknown is absolutely infinite, and that new knowledge is always being produced.”

ThinkingKnowsShouldSeemsScienceOpportunityRealizingAnswersViewsVisionKnowledgeImpossibleTroubleEventsFieldsParticularProveAbsolutesInfiniteProductionsRegularityNew Knowledge
Author:Willis R. Whitney
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“The saying that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing is, to my mind, a very dangerous adage. If knowledge is real and genuine, I do not believe that it is other than a very valuable posession, however infinitesimal its quantity may be. Indeed, if a little knowledge is dangerous, where is a man who has so much as to be out of danger?”

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Author:Thomas Huxley
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“The whole question of imagination in science is often misunderstood by people in other disciplines. ... They overlook the fact that whatever we are allowed to imagine in science must be consistent with everything else we know.”

PeopleKnowsWholeFactsScienceImaginationKnowledgeImagineDisciplineAccountsConsistentSelf DisciplineConsistencyMisunderstood
Book:The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vol. II: The New Millennium Edition: Mainly Electromagnetism and Matter
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“The whole value of science consists in the power which it confers upon us of applying to one object the knowledge acquired from like objects; and it is only so far, therefore, as we can discover and register resemblances that we can turn our observations to account.”

WholeScienceValuesTurnsKnowledgeObjectsAccountsObservationRegisterResemblance
Book:The Principles of Science: A Treatise on Logic and Scientific Method
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