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Enrico Fermi
(29 Sep 1901 - 28 Nov 1954)

Italian-American physicist.


Science Quotes by Enrico Fermi (5)

When asked what he meant by a miracle:
Oh, anything with a probability of less than 20%.
— Enrico Fermi
Attributed.
See also:  |  Biography (89)

One might be led to question whether the scientists acted wisely in presenting the statesmen of the world with this appalling problem. Actually there was no choice. Once basic knowledge is acquired, any attempt at preventing its fruition would be as futile as hoping to stop the earth from revolving around the sun.
— Enrico Fermi
'Atomic Energy for Power', Collected Papers (Note e Memorie) (1939-1945), Vol. 2, 556.
See also:  |  Atom Bomb (3)

The fact that no limits exist to the destructiveness of this weapon [i.e. the atomic bomb] makes its very existence and the knowledge of its construction a danger to humanity as a whole. It is necessarily an evil thing considered in any light. For these reasons, we believe it important for the President of the United States to tell the American public and the world what we think is wrong on fundamental ethical principles to initiate the development of such a weapon.
— Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi and I. I. Rabi, 'Minority Report of the General Advisory Committee', United States Atomic Energy Commission: In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer: Transcript of Hearing before Personnel Security Board, Washington, D.C. April 12th 1954—May 6th 1954 (1954), 79-80.
See also:  |  Atom Bomb (3)  |  Weapon (3)

Whatever Nature has in store for mankind, unpleasant as it may be, men must accept, for ignorance is never better than knowledge.
— Enrico Fermi
Quoted in Laura Fermi, Atoms in the Family: My Life with Enrico Fermi (1954), 244.
See also:  |  Ignorance (13)  |  Knowledge (92)

Young man, if I could remember the names of these particles, I would have been a botanist.
— Enrico Fermi
Quoted in Helge Kragh, Quantum Generations (1999), 321.
See also:  |  Biography (89)  |  Particle (3)


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I try to identify myself with the atoms...I ask what I would do if I were a carbon atom or a sodium atom. --Linus Pauling




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